A remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory is medically evacuating two residents a day as the Top End treats a “tsunami” of flu cases during its worst outbreak in years.
Key points:
- The Northern Territory has already reported 28 times more cases of influenza in 2022 compared to 2021
- The top health agency says health workers were caught unawares by the early onset of the flu
- The early start meant that the authorities could not carry out mass vaccinations in advance
Over the past week, one or two people have left Maningrid, 370 kilometers from Darwin, on the north coast of Arnhem Land, every day due to a severe flu outbreak.
“These are unprecedented numbers in volumes per day,” said Jessica Gatti, director of the local health clinic.
“You’re at the heart of everything and you only care about what comes up, but these evacuations pile up into our normal core business.”
Ms Gatti said the number of people seeking medical care had doubled.
“The flu season has definitely arrived much earlier and much harder than expected, so we didn’t get a chance to get a massive vaccination,” he said.
Health clinic director Jessica Gatti and President Charlie Gunabarra are managing big numbers. (Provided by: Jessica Gatti)
Ms Gatti said the clinic had also run out of medication to help relieve flu symptoms, but the federal government was able to offer more after 48 hours.
“Ideally, we could get some additional resources to help with this tsunami that is happening right now,” he said.
He said the management of the flu outbreak was very different from COVID-19.
“With COVID-19, there had been a lot of prior preparation and we had so many policies, procedures and workflows on how we would manage an outbreak internally,” Ms Gatti said.
“The flu outbreak is definitely worse in the sense that it puts a lot of pressure on staff and patients in that regard. [we’re] trying to see them all in time.
“Staff only see a lot more patient loads than they normally would.”
Sharana Turner and her daughter Collette are seeking treatment for the flu in Maningrida. (Supplied)
An NT Health Department spokesman said he had a plan to combat seasonal flu, including “reconfiguring resources as needed,” but did not provide details of what it involved.
Health workers “taken by surprise”
The spokesman said 2,162 flu cases had been reported across the NT this season, with 140 people hospitalized.
The Maningrida clinic is seeing twice as many people as normal. (Supplied)
Last year, 76 cases of influenza were reported, when five patients were admitted to hospital.
John Paterson, executive director of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance, said Maningrida was not the only community struggling to contain flu outbreaks.
John Paterson says the early arrival of the flu season caught health workers by surprise. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)
He said the flu season usually peaked in August or September in NT.
“For some unknown reason, he arrived early and caught our doctors a little off guard,” Paterson said.
There have been no reported deaths from the flu outbreak, but Paterson said many symptoms were worse than COVID-19.
“It’s probably a little more serious than what they had with COVID. It’s for a little longer,” he said.