{"id":376715,"date":"2026-04-13T02:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376715\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T02:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:38:08","slug":"what-to-know-as-flu-strain-super-k-nears-new-zealand-shores-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376715\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know as flu strain \u2018super-k\u2019 nears New Zealand shores"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fortunately, those who were considering how to formulate this year\u2019s flu vaccine had included a similar strain, which would make it much more effective than the protections the Northern Hemisphere had, he added.<\/p>\n

The cycle of respiratory viruses like the flu was becoming less predictable post-Covid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that flu strains work during the year has changed a bit from the predictable winter peak with not much going on in the rest of the year, to a lot more unpredictability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the vaccine provided limited protection against super-k, those most at risk should get vaccinated as early as possible, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those at higher risk of complications from the flu, which is anyone over the age of 65, and particularly those over the age of 75 or 80 … it\u2019s a very good idea to get in right now with your flu vaccine, because the season may be with us sooner than we think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another option, the Fluad vaccine, was more effective, but it was currently not funded in New Zealand, McIntyre said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are good arguments in favour of it, and the immunisation advisory centre has been lobbying for this for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly for our most frail elderly \u2013 so people in residential aged care who are most at risk of severe flu, I think there\u2019s a very good case for funding it, but at this stage it hasn\u2019t got high enough on the Pharmac wish-list.\u201d<\/p>\n

– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fortunately, those who were considering how to formulate this year\u2019s flu vaccine had included a similar strain, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,1379,6036,11688,117,111,43,139,69,84484,35836,196399,61,6923,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-376715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-as","9":"tag-flu","10":"tag-know","11":"tag-nears","12":"tag-new","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-shores","18":"tag-strain","19":"tag-superk","20":"tag-to","21":"tag-what","22":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376715","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=376715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}