{"id":28839,"date":"2025-09-18T02:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/28839\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T02:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:13:07","slug":"health-experts-warn-of-late-flu-peak-with-illness-rates-in-south-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/28839\/","title":{"rendered":"Health experts warn of late flu peak with illness rates in south rising"},"content":{"rendered":"
The FluTracking weekly report shows a later, higher peak for flu symptoms this year. Photo \/ FluTracking<\/p>\n
The influenza season typically runs from May to October, but following Covid 19, respiratory illness peaked earlier, in June or July. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, however, weekly reports of community influenza-like illness have risen steadily since May and are still climbing into late August.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this is later than recent years, weekly rates remain below the national peaks recorded between 2022 and 2024.\u201d <\/p>\n
Laboratory testing indicates that influenza and RSV are driving the spread of illness. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s burden is being driven by multiple viruses, particularly two strains \u2013 influenza A [H1N1] and B viruses \u2013 alongside a prolonged RSV season and ongoing Covid-19 spread. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese influenza viruses can hit young people harder, but even healthy adults can become seriously unwell. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is that this year\u2019s seasonal influenza vaccine is a good match to the strains circulating and will provide strong protection.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FluTracking weekly report shows a later, higher peak for flu symptoms this year. Photo \/ FluTracking The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10141,2841,23285,5658,1379,42,134,2959,3192,28292,78,4507,5983,43,1118,13028,7676,13120,801,1240,6921,40,38,41,39,26697,23644,102],"class_list":["post-28839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-begun","tag-country","tag-experiencing","tag-experts","tag-flu","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-high","tag-illness","tag-illnesses","tag-in","tag-late","tag-levels","tag-news","tag-of","tag-peak","tag-rates","tag-remain","tag-rising","tag-south","tag-spring","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-warn","tag-winter","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}