“The flu strains that exist right now are H1N1 and H3N2,” Chant said. “H1N1 mainly affects younger children. The flu season has started after we’ve had almost no flu in the last two years … about 15 percent of flu tests are now positive.”
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Health officials are particularly concerned about the rapid rise in cases with much lower levels of immunity in the population and slower absorption than usual, with 16% of people aged five to 65 who have been vaccinated against the flu this year.
NSW chief pediatrician Dr Matt O’Meara said thousands of children under the age of 10 had been flown to hospitals with the virus this flu season.
“Children and young people have been the hardest hit so far. We hope it’s a great year for the flu, “O’Meara said.
He said children under the age of about two were especially vulnerable because COVID-19 restrictions and closed borders meant they had never been exposed to the flu.
“It’s not winter yet, but the flu has arrived … and vaccination rates have been very low,” O’Meara said.
He said children often had a fever, runny nose or sore throat, cough and difficulty breathing, and many stayed “pretty bad for up to a week”.
“In general, the flu is not a mild illness for children, and it is the youngest children who are most clearly affected. In a typical year in NSW, about 100 babies under the age of six months would be expected to be admitted to the UK. ‘hospital’.
About one in 10 children admitted to the hospital with the flu end up in intensive care.
NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce said on Monday that some 9,500 people had come to the emergency department of NSW Hospital.
“Mondays are very important days in the emergency department because people use discretion not to go on the weekend and then go to ED on a Monday,” he said. Monday’s total was an increase of about 500 to 1,000 in what would normally be the day before the pandemic.
Earlier this month, the Herald reported that extreme demand at hospitals had caused patients to be treated in aisles and ambulance carts that could not unload patients due to lack of beds and lists. elective surgery waiting.
Doctors have warned that the block of beds – when hospitals are clogged with patients who do not have beds to admit – was the “worst it has been” in decades.
The president of the Royal Australian College of GPs in NSW, Dr Charlotte Hespe, warned that it was essential for people to be vaccinated against the flu to protect older family members.
“We are seeing a flu epidemic and it is killing the vulnerable. We are once again being more complacent with respiratory viruses and the flu vaccine is vital to protecting those most at risk,” Hespe said.
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