Flu (and the jab)

[TE44]

I think the Australian strain is influenze A h3, could be wrong, its not clear. Nor are the statistics with no figures for last year. I found this doctors article interesting.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-09-28/flu-epidemic-your-questions-answered/8992884

[robbin]

There was also an unusually prevalent B strain circulating in Oz.

[robbin]

But you are right - A(H3N2)was the main type.

[TE44]

http://www.health.gov.au/flureport

This is a recent surveillance report on Australias

Flu. I cannot see anything that different from previous years apart from a lower intale of patients into ICU.

It feels to me that the reporting on this killer flu has ignored important facts eg rapid testing.

And now we have group discounts for the vaccine. I noticed one chemist offering free vitamins with the jab. Scare tactics has always been a powerful tool.

[robbin]

Not sure how you draw those conclusions from the website you linked to, which says - "There has been more than two and a half times the number of laboratory confirmed notifications of influenza reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) this year when compared with the same period last year. An earlier season onset and introduction of rapid testing have contributed, in part, to this increase."

2.5 times the number of cases from last year appears to me statistically to be significantly different from last year, even taking account of improved testing (which elsewhere is reported to have made only a relatively small difference to the overall numbers).

[TE44]

Clinical severity for the season to date, as measured through the proportion of patients admitted directly to ICU, and deaths attributed to pneumonia or influenza, is low to moderate. The proportion of patients admitted directly to ICU has been on the lower range reported in recent years. There have been a number of reported deaths due to influenza and pneumonia and the majority have been in the elderly, which is consistent with a season predominated by influenza A(H3N2).

To date, based on antigenic characterisation of circulating influenza viruses, the seasonal influenza vaccines appear to be a moderate to good match for circulating virus strains, depending on the strain. Vaccine effectiveness estimates, which provide an indication of how well the vaccine provides protection against influenza, will not be completed until the end of the influenza season.

from link I posted above, sorry edited to add this.

[TE44]

Robbin I would appreciate any figures with comparisons, you have read elsewhere. thanks.

[ianr]

I think it's the fear of the disruption of NHS services, perhaps hospitals in particular, that seems to be a main driver of the campaigning for vaccination here. The disruption can be caused both directly, through admission of more patients, and then indirectly, through the spread to hospital staff and then other hospital patients. It's also the most vulnerable who die. The median age of the 417 Australian flu associated deaths reported so far this year is 85 (range 0-107)!

In Australia there do seem to have been greatly increased flu admissions to their sentinel hospitals this year. The attached is from the latest full report, available on the same page as the summary.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Apparently the flu jab is only ?5 at Asda.