Australian flu epidemic inundates public health services

health services

By John Mackay 
25 October 2017

The 2017 Australian winter flu season looks to be the most severe for at least eight years. It has caused more than 400 deaths nationally and placed significant demands on under-funded public hospital and primary care health services. The peak numbers of flu cases also occurred earlier in winter than in previous years.

The epidemic has demonstrated the incapacity of the public health system to manage a sudden increase in acutely sick patients. Emergency room visits reached record levels at the peak of the season in many major hospitals, with limited or no beds available for many more affected by the virus.

The past three years have seen higher numbers of reported cases compared to the previous three years, suggesting an emerging trend that means future flu seasons may see repeats of this year’s epidemic or worse. The severity of the Australian flu season also is creating fears that the northern hemisphere winter will produce a similar crisis.

No full report on the Australian flu season is expected until the end of November, but the Australian government’s Health Department recorded 212,365 laboratory-confirmed notifications of influenza by October 16. The numbers have more than doubled since last year.

By the end of September, according to the Health Department, 417 influenza-associated deaths had been notified to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System during 2017. The median age of deaths notified was 85 years. There had been a large increase in deaths since the previous Australian Influenza Surveillance Report, mostly attributed to improved reporting in New South Wales.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/25/flua-o25.html