It is clear that a severe flu season is upon us, with more than three times the notifications of laboratory-confirmed influenza in the past two weeks.
Latest figures from the Commonwealth Health Department reveal three people, aged 87 to 92, have died of influenza. Since the start of seasonal surveillance in April, there have been 368 hospital admissions due to influenza reported across sentinel hospitals sites, of which 7.6% were admitted directly to ICU.
“We’ve heard anecdotal reports of some flu outbreaks in aged care homes,” said Paul Sadler, Interim CEO of the Aged & Community Care Providers Association.
“The rollout of the flu vaccination seems to be proceeding pretty well.”
All residents of aged care homes will, if they agree, have a free flu shot.
As part of the Health Department’s winter preparedness plan, packs of the prescription-only medication, Tamiflu (oseltamivir), an oral antiviral used to treat and prevent influenza A and B infections, are being delivered to residential aged care homes in a one-off preplacement.
