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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-...y-australias-record-flu-surge-bleak-omen-nhs/
Why Australia’s record flu surge is a bleak omen for the NHS
A sharp and early explosion of influenza has hit the country, signaling that a long-feared, post-pandemic flu revival has arrived
By Sarah Newey, Global Health Security Correspondent and Joe Pinkstone, Science Correspondent 11 July 2022 • 9:00am
Throughout the pandemic, measures to curb Covid-19 also squashed the spread of an older foe: flu. But that lull is now over. Influenza is “back with a vengeance” in Australia, foreshadowing a difficult autumn ahead for Britain.
Typically, seasonal flu arrives in Australia in mid-July and cases peak in early-September. But the country has been hit by a sharp and early explosion of infections over the last two months, a sign that the long-feared, post-pandemic flu revival has arrived.
In the week leading up to June 2022, when the latest data is available, 27,000 cases were reported - roughly 10 times higher than the five-year average, which includes the pandemic period. In 2019, a particularly bad year, 14,000 infections were recorded in the same week.
“Already exhausted healthcare workers have been hit hard by this latest infectious monster,” Professor Ian Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland, told the Telegraph. “It started early and spiked more quickly than we were used to seeing before the pandemic.
“And that’s on top of the ongoing pandemic. [We’re] seeing a very high new BA.5-driven [wave of] cases in Australia,” he added. “It’s not only Sars-CoV-2 and flu either - there have been very high levels of RSV, rhinoviruses, adenoviruses etc. all at once.”...
Why Australia’s record flu surge is a bleak omen for the NHS
A sharp and early explosion of influenza has hit the country, signaling that a long-feared, post-pandemic flu revival has arrived
By Sarah Newey, Global Health Security Correspondent and Joe Pinkstone, Science Correspondent 11 July 2022 • 9:00am
Throughout the pandemic, measures to curb Covid-19 also squashed the spread of an older foe: flu. But that lull is now over. Influenza is “back with a vengeance” in Australia, foreshadowing a difficult autumn ahead for Britain.
Typically, seasonal flu arrives in Australia in mid-July and cases peak in early-September. But the country has been hit by a sharp and early explosion of infections over the last two months, a sign that the long-feared, post-pandemic flu revival has arrived.
In the week leading up to June 2022, when the latest data is available, 27,000 cases were reported - roughly 10 times higher than the five-year average, which includes the pandemic period. In 2019, a particularly bad year, 14,000 infections were recorded in the same week.
“Already exhausted healthcare workers have been hit hard by this latest infectious monster,” Professor Ian Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland, told the Telegraph. “It started early and spiked more quickly than we were used to seeing before the pandemic.
“And that’s on top of the ongoing pandemic. [We’re] seeing a very high new BA.5-driven [wave of] cases in Australia,” he added. “It’s not only Sars-CoV-2 and flu either - there have been very high levels of RSV, rhinoviruses, adenoviruses etc. all at once.”...