Young ‘superspreaders’ targeted in bid to avoid repeat of 2025’s deadly flu season
The state’s nasal spray flu vaccine program will be expanded to target more young super-spreaders in a bid to prevent another deadly flu season, as figures show Queenslanders remain hesitant to get vaccinated.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls posed for cameras as he collected his flu vaccine from a chemist north of Brisbane on Tuesday morning. state’s needle-free nasal spray programInitially offered to children aged 2 to 5, the app will be expanded to include everyone under 18.
Asked why the scheme had not included older children from the start, Nicholls said the government was acting on advice to target superspreaders aged two to five as a priority.
But he decided to expand the scope. nasal spray It has a shorter shelf life than the injectable vaccine to ensure that stocks are not wasted.
“This stock expires in August in various ways, [and] “There is no benefit to us if the stock expires,” Nicholls said.
“We want it to be delivered to people, we want it to be used… whether it’s a shot or a free flu mist [nasal spray].”
Crisafulli’s government announced a needle-free flu spray for young children last year, saying it would help children. 25 percent of children with needle phobia.
Nicholls said the needle-free initiative, the first of its kind in Australia, was already showing promising results.
“The number of children aged 2 to 5 years vaccinated during a similar period last year [with the nasal spray] “It was around 20,000,” he said.
“As of yesterday, I was told that number was almost 30,000, which means there has been a massive increase in the number of young children who are super spreaders and are most affected by the flu.”
However, older age groups did not show the same levels of uptake; Only about 1.2 million Queenslanders have had a flu vaccine so far this year; This is roughly the same rate as last year.
“This represents about 20 per cent of Queensland’s population,” Nicholls said.
“We always want to see more participation… [so] “We encourage as many people as possible to get a free flu vaccine.”
Last year Queensland reported the lowest flu vaccination rate of any state or territory, with less than 28 per cent of the population.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale said pledging to improve the state’s vaccination rates. When he took office this year, he said current low flu rates could lead to vaccine complacency.
“We don’t have a lot of flu in Queensland, which is great and we’re really pleased to see that people aren’t sick, we don’t have a lot of people in our hospitals currently being hospitalized with flu,” Gale said.
“But maybe that means people aren’t seeing as much disease and maybe there’s no pressure to go and get vaccinated.”
By comparison, more than 95,000 cases of flu were recorded in Queensland last year; this was the highest annual total in the last decade. Almost 290 flu-related deaths were reported during the same period.
During the peak season, an average of 227 beds in public hospitals were filled by flu patients, almost half of whom were over 65 years of age.
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