{"id":575424,"date":"2026-03-31T02:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575424\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:45:10","slug":"horror-flu-surge-sparks-urgent-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575424\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Horror\u2019 flu surge sparks urgent call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia is facing a concerning rise in flu cases in 2026, with nearly 25,000 infections recorded by the end of March, a warning sign after last year\u2019s record-breaking outbreak.<\/p>\n

The Royal Australian College of GPs is urging Australians to book their annual flu vaccination now before the winter months push hospitals to their limits.<\/p>\n

Doctors are keen to avoid a repeat of 2025 when emergency departments were overwhelmed, ambulances faced long ramping delays, and influenza claimed 1738 lives. The 502,972 lab-confirmed cases in that year marked the worst flu season on record.<\/p>\n

From August 2025 to January 2026, more deaths were associated with influenza than Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\"Low<\/p>\n

Low vaccination rates in 2025 left many children and adults vulnerable to infection.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, flu vaccination coverage remained low. By the end of August 2025, just 25.7 per cent of children aged six months to five years, 14.5 per cent of five to 15-year-olds, and 60.5 per cent of Australians over 65 were immunised.<\/p>\n

RACGP president Michael Wright fears rising flu cases will strain hospitals and trigger more ambulance ramping if numbers continue to climb.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was a horror flu year. That likely contributed to the surge in demand on our hospitals we saw in 2025 and unacceptable ambulance ramping when hospitals couldn\u2019t cope as a result,\u201d Dr Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wants to see that again. Not parents and not the state and territory governments which run our public hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, doctors are particularly concerned about a new, highly mutated strain of influenza A (H3N2), nicknamed \u201cSuper-K\u201d.<\/p>\n

First detected in the US in June 2025, the strain led to dozens of child deaths and has now been confirmed in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"FLU<\/p>\n

By the end of March 2026, Australia had recorded 24,800 flu cases. Picture: NewsWire\/Ian Currie<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 2700 of the flu cases Australia has recorded this year were among babies and children under five who are at a higher risk of hospitalisation and complications, whether or not they have pre-existing medical conditions,\u201d Dr Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll adults should get a flu vaccine each year, but for those young children, it\u2019s essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several states now offer needle-free, intranasal flu vaccines for young children, providing the same protection as traditional shots but as a painless spray.<\/p>\n

In NSW, Queensland, and South Australia, the vaccines are available for children aged two to five, while in Western Australia, children aged two to 12 can access the intranasal option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntranasal vaccines provide the same protection as current vaccinations but replace a needle with a painless spray,\u201d Dr Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a smart way to keep kids safe from severe infections, which can have long-term health consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia is facing a concerning rise in flu cases in 2026, with nearly 25,000 infections recorded by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,138,282225,137,282226],"class_list":{"0":"post-575424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-flu-season","11":"tag-flu-vaccination","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-michael-wright"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575424","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=575424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}