{"id":567562,"date":"2026-03-27T10:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567562\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T10:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:05:12","slug":"dire-warning-over-super-flu-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567562\/","title":{"rendered":"Dire warning over \u2018super\u2019 flu strain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More than 60 influenza-related deaths have been recorded in just one month as Australia braces for another severe flu season, which experts say could be supercharged by the Super-K variant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded 63 influenza associated deaths in January, which followed an unseasonably high flu mortality rate recorded late last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There were 95 deaths involving influenza throughout November and 119 in December, bringing the total for last year up to 1,701, exceeding mortality rate highs recorded almost a decade ago in 2017 of 1,656.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Someone might be catching a cold\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5b6956ebdd6577e8e7ec0a794d21fc72.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>ABS Data has revealed 63 influenza associated deaths in January alone. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mater Health director of infectious diseases Professor Paul Griffin said he believes the surge in mortality rates is explained by the highly contagious Super-K influenza strain, which began circulating Australia in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis is largely due to the Super-K variant, which is easily transmitted, and also due to low vaccination rates,\u201d Professor Griffin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Super-K was first detected in the US in June last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Professor Griffin urged everyone to get their flu shots before there are any more unnecessary influenza related deaths.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Professor Paul Griffin is urging Australians to get their annual vaccine. Picture: Supplied\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/77926d9453bfd582c4deadea8590b88d.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Professor Paul Griffin is urging Australians to get their annual vaccine. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cFlu is a major public health threat, and everyone should have the annual vaccine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cEspecially those who are most vulnerable and need the added protection it brings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis year, we need to do better and get as many people vaccinated as possible, before more lives are lost unnecessarily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The ABS data shows the number of influenza related deaths has been exceeding COVID-19 mortality rates since August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Influenza related deaths have increased year-on-year since 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 60 influenza-related deaths have been recorded in just one month as Australia braces for another severe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,169,138,137,279265,106038],"class_list":["post-567562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-bureau-of-statistics","tag-flu-season","tag-health","tag-mortality-rates","tag-paul-griffin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}