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Sydney flu epidemic kills 150
July 22, 2007
AT least 150 elderly Sydneysiders have died from the most serious flu outbreak to hit the city in four years.
The victims have all died this month after suffering complications, mainly pneumonia, caused by the influenza A virus, a Health Department report reveals.
Babies and young children have also been hard hit. Hundreds have required specialist treatment in hospitals.
"This is a pretty bad one - the highest level of influenza since 2003,'' NSW Health's director of communicable diseases, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said.
Although the elderly are particularly at risk in winter, he said the full extent of cases was not known as many people did not seek medical treatment for the influenza A virus.
Sydney's freezing winter has been blamed for the extent of the epidemic, helping it to spread easily and rapidly.
At Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick, the number of youngsters at the emergency department with viral infections has soared by 200 per cent compared to last year.
Respiratory illnesses have risen by 70 per cent.
"We're in the peak of the flu season and we're seeing quite a sharp increase in people presenting at emergency departments,'' Dr McAnulty said.
Doctors in Sydney held an urgent teleconference with West Australian colleagues last week following the death of a fourth child there.
As investigations continue into the cause, doctors in Sydney have been warned to be alert for the fast-acting illness.
So severe and prevalent are the cases of influenza A and bronchiolitis that babies such as seriously ill Liam Wolthers had to be placed in an adolescent ward until a bed became available at the Randwick hospital.
What began as a runny nose quickly escalated to breathing difficulties. He was rushed to hospital where he required oxygen for six days.
"Twenty minutes after we got to hospital, he was getting really distressed,'' his mother, Brooke Wolthers, said.
"He was struggling to breathe.
"He was admitted to C3 adolescent ward because they had no beds - this bronchiolitis is running rampant.''
Mrs Wolthers, a former pediatric nurse, said she was able to see the signs early, in time to get her son to hospital.
"When babies go downhill, they do so very fast. You have to be really diligent in picking up the signs as early as you can. We're lucky we have a medical background,'' she said.
Dr Adam Jaffe, head of the respiratory department at Sydney Children's Hospital, said there had been a peak in cases of bronchiolitis and viral pneumonias compared to previous years.
Recent unusually cold weather has been blamed for causing the illness, which is spread easily and rapidly.
"The most vulnerable ones are babies in their first weeks of life,'' he said.
In WA, doctors are desperately trying to discover the reasons behind the four child deaths.
David Smith, director of microbiology at PathWest, WA's pathology laboratory, said it appeared the four children had a bacterial infection in the respiratory tract.
"It appears more that in these infections, the bacteria either got very quickly into the blood without causing a real pneumonia - that would have given the parents more warning - or that they produced a toxin that got into the system and affected them,'' Mr Smith said.
"And that does mean that the course of the illness was quicker than we normally see with these bacterial infections.''
July 22, 2007
AT least 150 elderly Sydneysiders have died from the most serious flu outbreak to hit the city in four years.
The victims have all died this month after suffering complications, mainly pneumonia, caused by the influenza A virus, a Health Department report reveals.
Babies and young children have also been hard hit. Hundreds have required specialist treatment in hospitals.
"This is a pretty bad one - the highest level of influenza since 2003,'' NSW Health's director of communicable diseases, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said.
Although the elderly are particularly at risk in winter, he said the full extent of cases was not known as many people did not seek medical treatment for the influenza A virus.
Sydney's freezing winter has been blamed for the extent of the epidemic, helping it to spread easily and rapidly.
At Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick, the number of youngsters at the emergency department with viral infections has soared by 200 per cent compared to last year.
Respiratory illnesses have risen by 70 per cent.
"We're in the peak of the flu season and we're seeing quite a sharp increase in people presenting at emergency departments,'' Dr McAnulty said.
Doctors in Sydney held an urgent teleconference with West Australian colleagues last week following the death of a fourth child there.
As investigations continue into the cause, doctors in Sydney have been warned to be alert for the fast-acting illness.
So severe and prevalent are the cases of influenza A and bronchiolitis that babies such as seriously ill Liam Wolthers had to be placed in an adolescent ward until a bed became available at the Randwick hospital.
What began as a runny nose quickly escalated to breathing difficulties. He was rushed to hospital where he required oxygen for six days.
"Twenty minutes after we got to hospital, he was getting really distressed,'' his mother, Brooke Wolthers, said.
"He was struggling to breathe.
"He was admitted to C3 adolescent ward because they had no beds - this bronchiolitis is running rampant.''
Mrs Wolthers, a former pediatric nurse, said she was able to see the signs early, in time to get her son to hospital.
"When babies go downhill, they do so very fast. You have to be really diligent in picking up the signs as early as you can. We're lucky we have a medical background,'' she said.
Dr Adam Jaffe, head of the respiratory department at Sydney Children's Hospital, said there had been a peak in cases of bronchiolitis and viral pneumonias compared to previous years.
Recent unusually cold weather has been blamed for causing the illness, which is spread easily and rapidly.
"The most vulnerable ones are babies in their first weeks of life,'' he said.
In WA, doctors are desperately trying to discover the reasons behind the four child deaths.
David Smith, director of microbiology at PathWest, WA's pathology laboratory, said it appeared the four children had a bacterial infection in the respiratory tract.
"It appears more that in these infections, the bacteria either got very quickly into the blood without causing a real pneumonia - that would have given the parents more warning - or that they produced a toxin that got into the system and affected them,'' Mr Smith said.
"And that does mean that the course of the illness was quicker than we normally see with these bacterial infections.''
