Experts have warned that the 2022 flu season will redefine what it means for Australia to be \u2018flu ready\u2019 as the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System reported over 65,775 confirmed cases of influenza in May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This compares with 30,372 cases in May 2019 which was until now the highest number of confirmed cases recorded in the month of May.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meeting today at BioMelbourne Network\u2019s Flu resurgence \u2013 what does it mean for our sector?<\/em><\/strong>2<\/sup> event, a panel of Australia\u2019s leading influenza and biosecurity experts discussed the implications of flu re-emerging in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Professor Ian Barr, Deputy Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Influenza is definitely back in the Southern Hemisphere in 2022. Countries like Argentina have seen similar outbreaks, while Brazil saw an outbreak of Influenza A viruses in summer this year. In Australia, we’re seeing Influenza A viruses dominate with very little circulation of influenza B viruses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “From the samples that are being sent to us at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, we’re seeing vaccine components that are well matched to the Influenza A viruses (H1N1 and H3N2) that are circulating in Australia. While it’s too early to assess vaccine effectiveness, this is a positive start.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Australia is really at the forefront of the fight against flu, with a number of the viruses in this year’s vaccines being isolated at the WHO labs here in Melbourne.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Jonathan Anderson, Seqirus Executive Medical Director International Regions, <\/strong>said that this year\u2019s flu season will provide lots of lessons for how we prepare and implement public health strategies in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralia is in a unique position in that we are one of the first countries to face COVID and a simultaneous flu season that is similar to pre-COVID levels. It\u2019s clear that the rest of the world will be watching our flu season closely and learning from our successes or failures,\u201d said Dr Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the face of an early and significant season, it\u2019s important that we focus on innovative technology that can help protect us from flu both now and in the future. This flu season, more Australians than ever are opting for protection with flu vaccines that are the product of innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “As we look towards future flu seasons, further innovation that is still to proven in studies such as adjuvanted cell-based vaccines and self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) may be the next frontier in vaccine technology. sa-mRNA is the second generation of today’s mRNA and works by instructing the body to replicate mRNA, amplifying the amount of protein made, stimulating the body\u2019s immune response and leaving an immune blueprint to recognize future infection.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>According to Dr Felicia Pradera, General Manager of Health Security Systems Australia <\/strong>at DMTC Limited and Program Manager – Medical Countermeasures Development at Defence Science and Technology:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cVaccines and treatments are important tools for managing infectious diseases and pandemics but it\u2019s important that we use all the tools at our disposal and develop a whole of system approach. This includes considerations like PPE, modelling and simulation, decision support tools, medical devices, surveillance, real world evidence and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can take a number of lessons from COVID-19 to enable better response and recovery planning in relation to influenza and other pathogens. From improved real time data sharing, faster sharing of research and investing in the development of platform capabilities that can then be rapidly modified or trained to a target pathogen. There\u2019s also greater potential for us to implement and leverage public-private partnerships, similar to Operation Warp Speed in the US, to ensure we can tackle Australia\u2019s key health priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Experts have warned that the 2022 flu season will redefine what it means for Australia to be \u2018flu ready\u2019 as the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System reported over 65,775 confirmed cases of influenza in May. This compares with 30,372 cases in May 2019 which was until now the highest number of confirmed cases recorded in … Continue reading “Record 65,000 flu cases in May as experts warn 2022 flu resurgence redefines what it means to be ‘flu ready’\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16943,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16942\/revisions\/16943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}