Experts have sounded a warning about this year's flu season, with concerns young children will be particularly vulnerable to life-threatening complications.
Queensland flu notifications for the year have skyrocketed in the past week, increasing from 1,848 to 4,282 — a jump of more than 130 per cent in seven days.
Since the start of April, 457 people have been admitted to Queensland public hospitals with flu, including 30 who have required intensive care.
Queensland Health data shows 180 people have been diagnosed with the double whammy of having COVID-19 and flu at the same time in 2022.
Almost half of Queenslanders with so-called "flurona" have been aged between 10 and 29.
Queensland Children's Hospital infectious disease physician Angela Berkhout said children aged two and under had low levels of natural immunity to flu as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19 public health directions kept flu numbers down in 2020 and 2021, but they have already rebounded this year with the relaxation of restrictions and reopening of borders.
"We can't be complacent," Dr Berkhout said.
"It is really important that this year … children are having their influenza vaccine."
Dr Berkhout said flu could be serious in children, with the virus capable of causing myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, and encephalitis — swelling of the brain.
"I don't want to be fear-mongering amongst parents, but very rarely there are some children who die from influenza," she said.
"People think: I've got a well child, they've got no underlying medical problems so my child will be fine. Unfortunately, it's unpredictable.
"We know that there are children who've been previously fit and healthy who unfortunately catch influenza and have severe disease and complications related to influenza."
A fast rise but no guarantee of a fast decline
University of Queensland virologist Ian Mackay said flu was not a "trivial virus".
"A proportion of infections are quite severe and quite serious and every year it kills people," he said.
Dr Mackay said diagnosed flu cases across Queensland, as well as nationally, suggested the season could peak earlier than the usual August pinnacle.
"We've certainly got a much earlier rise and looking at the last five years, I would say it's a faster rate of rise than we've seen in any of the previous five years," he said.
"It doesn't mean it'll peak fast and drop fast. It might stay around for a while."
Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard, an infectious disease specialist, is yet to make flu shots mandatory for people visiting or working in residential aged care, as he has for COVID-19 vaccination.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said yesterday she would be guided by Dr Gerrard on the issue but Dr Mackay said, "flu vaccination should be essential for people going into vulnerable settings like that".
Flu shots are free for children aged from six months to less than five years, Australians aged 65 and older, pregnant women, First Nations people and those with certain medical risk factors, such as heart disease, severe asthma, chronic lung conditions and impaired immunity.
But Ms D'Ath is so concerned about this year's flu season she plans to write to the Commonwealth asking for free flu jabs to be broadened.
"We are probably going to be experiencing our worst flu season that we have seen in almost a decade and it's coming at us quickly," she said.
Queensland Health's Acting Chief Operating Officer David Rosengren, an emergency medicine specialist, said the state was already seeing a surge in the number of flu cases requiring hospital admission, including intensive care.
"The dominant strain of influenza this season is influenza A," Dr Rosengren said.
"Influenza A is a serious illness. It has serious impacts on our young and on our older and more frail people, particularly those with chronic disease.
"I saw a 19-year-old gent in the emergency department last Thursday night with influenza A who described never having felt so bad in his entire life.
"If you don't want to feel so bad in your entire life, then my challenge is to go out and get your flu vaccine. We know it works."
