Doctors warn of rapidly mutating flu virus that only one in five Aussies are protected against
A fast-mutating strain of the flu has killed more than 73 people in Australia as medical experts fight to contain the virus only 20 per cent of Aussies are protected against.
According to the Victorian Diseases Reference Laboratory, the number of notified lab-confirmed cases of the flu for the year to July 9 is more than 90 per cent higher than those recorded in the same period in 2016.
Influenza A (H3N2) is the flu subtype wreaking the most havoc.
Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Tony Bartone told Fairfax influenza viruses were rapidly evolving making it difficult to develop vaccines to fight them.
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Many of the viruses are shape-shifters and constantly undergo changes to evade the body’s defences leading to outbreaks.
Dr Bartone said when this has happened throughout history it’s caused a pandemic, killing millions.
"Every now and then a major change occurs in the virus," Dr Bartone said.
"We're punctuated regularly with seasonal variations of influenza, but the virus is very clever. It has evolved an ability to change its covering and mutate fractionally to get past defences allowing the virus to continue to spread."
But Dr Bartone said the virus spread was a “wake-up call” for Australians to be “well-immunised people”.
He said each year 3500 people die of the flu in Australia.
Australia currently has a vaccination rate of 20 per cent or only one in five people.
Dr Bartone said medications such as Tamiflu needed to be used in the early stages of the virus to work.
"Influenza can easily spread, however, it's not the virus, but the secondary complications that follow which result in death," he said.
"Often, but not always, complications of the virus occur in someone with other medical conditions, and of course, they [complications] are more common in the very young or elderly population, but even people outside these groups are at risk.”
Young father Ben Ihlow, from Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, became the eighth person to die from the outbreak in 2017 when he passed away on Sunday following a flu outbreak at an aged-care facility.
Mr Ihlow, 30, left behind a wife and a 10-month-old baby boy.
A crowdfunding page has been started to support his wife and child.
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Mackay teen Mercedes King is fighting for her life in a Brisbane hospital after contracting a severe case of the virus.
Her aunt Renee Shannon, who has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds to cover hospital expenses said she had to be placed in a coma after her organs shutdown.
“Her parents, Troy and Becky, were absolutely unaware of the nightmare that was about to unfold,” Ms Shannon wrote.
