Doctors are pleading with parents to get their children's influenza vaccination before the upcoming school holidays, as flu cases continue to surge.
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Illawarra Family Medical Centre GP Dr Michele McGrath said her practice was seeing large numbers of patients with the flu, with children under 14 most affected.
There were also high numbers of COVID-19 and seasonal illnesses like RSV and glandular fever, she said.
"We've seen a marked increase in the last few months, and it was pretty early this year or so that we started seeing the flu - probably due to more people travelling overseas during summer to the northern hemisphere flu season," she said.
"We're mainly seeing influenza A, H1N1 cases, and we have quite a lot of really sick people coming in."
She noted that only sick people who presented to the GP with flu symptoms were tested, but that overall the case numbers were high and expected to increase as winter goes on.
In the Illawarra, according to the latest NSW Health data, there have been more than 1300 cases so far this year.
Dr McGrath said the school holidays were a good time to prioritise vaccinations for the entire family, as it marked the middle of the cold season and was a time were families may be socialising outside their usual circle.
"During school time, you're exposed to the people in the classroom and obviously kids mingle and get sick with all sorts of bugs, but in the holidays you go to things like play centres and so on in the colder months and you're in closer proximity to each other in small spaces," she said.
"Your risk is a bit higher contracting things in play groups and play areas in closed indoor play areas and it's people you don't normally mix with."
She said travelling also posed an increased risk, with doctors particularly concerned about the amount of influenza circulating in Queensland.
According to national data, Queensland currently has high flu case numbers and lower rates of vaccination than other areas in Australia.
Dr McGrath said this meant families heading to warmer climes during the holidays would be at higher risk of catching influenza.
"We're a bit concerned that people are less protected up in Queensland and we worry that people are gonna contract the flu when they head up there," she said.
Nationally, only one in five kids aged six months to five years old have had their free flu vaccine, while for kids aged six to 15, closer to one in 10 have been vaccinated.
Dr McGrath said she believed these very low rates were mainly due to vaccination fatigue after COVID-19.
"We want people to know that the vaccine is safe, it's effective, it works really well - it really reduces disease burden," she said.
"You don't want to be caught out and be one of those people that end up very unwell and in hospital or on a ventilator with the flu, because it definitely happens"
"You just never know if you're going to be the one that actually gets hit by it really severely."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
