Take warnings seriously on flu

IT’S imperative that people take seriously the warnings by health officials about a pending horror influenza season.

People must take all preventive measures, including vaccinations, washing hands regularly, covering a cough with a tissue or a hand and staying at home if they are ill.

The flu can kill, especially the elderly, young and vulnerable.

Already an outbreak at a Cairns nursing home has health authorities on alert and under pressure.

Ten patients from Blue Care Hollingsworth Elder’s Village at Portsmith were hospitalised with symptoms of influenza A early Tuesday morning.

The unprecedented influx of flu patients resulted in a medical emergency “Code Brown” being declared at Cairns Hospital.

Six of the patients have since returned to the nursing home, where the Cairns Tropical Public Health Unit is working to prevent the highly contagious disease from spreading further.

The outbreak has added to more than 800 lab-confirmed cases of influenza in the Cairns health district since the start of the year, compared to a year-to-date average of about 190 cases. It is an extraordinary figure. In early 2016, three people died and up to 60 people fell ill from a respiratory disease outbreak in several nursing homes across the Far North.

The cost to the community, the government and business is enormous.

That is why it is crucial that all preventive measures are undertaken. The flu is avoidable. We all have a responsibility to act now. Nick Dalton Deputy editor