Region hit by swine flu
The WA Country Health Service has confirmed the Pilbara has been plagued again by swine flu this year.
WA Country Health Service Pilbara regional director Ron Wynn said there had been 46 influenza notifications in the area this year.
He said of those, 18 were for the H1N1 2009 pandemic strain colloquially known as "swine flu".
"All laboratory confirmed cases are notified, but cases diagnosed clinically without laboratory confirmation are not," he said.
"Therefore 46 is undoubtedly an underestimate but (is) the only reliable data we have directly comparable with previous years.
"There have been notifications of this strain each year since 2009, so its presence in the Pilbara is not unusual.
"The number of influenza notifications for the year to date is not unusually high."
Mr Wynn advised people with influenza to limit transmission by staying away from work or school, regularly washing their hands - especially after coughing, blowing their noses and before food preparation - and by covering their mouths when coughing or sneezing. "Vaccination is effective at reducing the risk of acquiring the flu," he said.
"Other ways to minimise the risk of acquiring influenza are to avoid close contact with people who have flu-like symptoms, and to clean hands regularly with soap and water or hand sanitisers."
The 2014 flu vaccine includes protection against the swine flu strain and people seeking immunisation can get the injection from their GP.
Swine flu was first proposed as a disease related to human flu during the 1918 pandemic, when pigs became stricken at the same time as humans.
According to the Health Department's website, symptoms include fatigue, headache, runny or congested nose, muscle or joint aches and pains, and chills with nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhoea also reported, particularly in children.
While fatalities are uncommon from the disease, they are more likely to occur in young children and the elderly, and are generally caused by respiratory failure, pneumonia leading to sepsis, high fever, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and kidney failure.
Most people have a relatively mild illness and are sick for about two to four days before making a complete recovery.
