Four very good reasons to get your flu vaccination

As we head into flu season, our experts highlight the risks of influenza, as well as the rewards of getting vaccinated. Infectious Diseases Staff Specialist Dr Krispin Hajkowicz and Metro North Public Health Unit Director Daniel Francis dish out the useful information on the upcoming flu season.

Dr Hajkowicz particularly encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated, after low levels of coverage last year. All Queensland residents over the age of 6 months can access the influenza vaccine for free in 2024.

How is this flu season looking?

Following a big drop off in flu cases during the worst of COVID-19, when people were isolating and overseas travel was restricted, 2022 and 2023 saw flu seasons that started early and peaked early, but then dragged on and ended late. Daniel Francis says the early signs are that 2024 is following a similar pattern.

North America’s flu season, often an indicator or how ours will go, was moderately bad.

Why get vaccinated?

Vaccination helps protect against severe disease and complications from influenza.

Tragically, 13 children died from flu in Australia last year.

If you get admitted to hospital with influenza you have about a 7.5 per cent chance of ending up in ICU, which is a higher rate than COVID.

Dr Hajkowicz says there are a multitude of reasons to get vaccinated:

• Protect yourself: “Invest half an hour, 20 minutes in coming in and getting vaccinated, you might be saving a week in bed, and a couple of weeks of illness after that.”
• Protect your family: “Get our children vaccinated, that’s where real harm happens.”
• Protect your colleagues: “Roll up your shirt sleeve and come and say ‘gday’ to your vaccination team and hopefully we’ll have a good flu season.”
• Protect your patients: “We have some of the most vulnerable patients in Queensland at RBWH and across Metro North.”

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommends influenza vaccination for all people aged 6 months and over (who doesn’t have a contraindication to vaccination).

What’s in the flu vaccine?

There are eight vaccines for flu in Australia and Dr Hajkowicz says he “has full confidence in all of them”.

Flu vaccines are all inactivated, so you can’t catch flu from the vaccine. It’s extensively tested and checked.

Those available in Australia vary from year to year, depending on what strains are considered the most likely to affect us.

There are egg-based, adjuvanted, high-dose and cell-based vaccines available.

Egg-based influenza vaccines are prepared from purified inactivated influenza virus that has been cultivated in embryonated hen’s eggs, and they include the standard dose. It’s fine to have this vaccine even if you have an egg allergy.

Cell-based influenza vaccines are prepared from purified inactivated influenza virus that has been propagated in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells.

Adjuvanted and high-dose influenza vaccines are both ‘enhanced’ vaccines specifically designed to increase the response of the immune system to the vaccine. They are suitable for over-65s.

When is the best time to get the flu vaccination?

Ideally before the onset of each flu season. Staff vaccinations at Metro North Health are beginning in April.

There is a delay of 10 to 14 days after getting the jab before the vaccines become effective. The best protection against influenza occurs in the first three to four months, but protection should generally last the whole season.