Second wave of swine flu feared
Posted by JohnF | Posted in Swine Flu | Posted on 29-01-2010
Tags: Robert Booy, Swine Flu
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A SECOND wave of swine flu may hit Australia as soon as next month, a top infectious diseases expert warns.
Paediatrician Professor Robert Booy, from the University of Sydney’s Children’s Hospital, spoke out yesterday saying he was concerned at the low take-up of vaccinations against the virus.
He says critics who questioned the value of the vaccines sounded the “death-knell” for what would otherwise have been a way to control the virus, subsequently reducing its spread and the deaths the virus is likely to cause.
Other continents, including Europe and Asia, have already had a second wave “and ours is coming”, he said.
Prof Booy added that not enough people were immune through previous exposure or vaccination to allow the virus to be successfully controlled.
“There are reports from countries suggesting that uptake of the new vaccine for H1N1 2009 may be somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent of the population,” he said.
Almost 30 South Australians died with swine flu last year, and about 9000 people had confirmed cases.
SA Health chief medical officer Prof Paddy Phillips said that swine flu and seasonal flu could strike at any time of the year, and that swine flu had a worse effect on younger and healthier people.