Australia is experiencing “unprecedented” demand for influenza vaccine this year with uptake up 32% on last year, new health department figures show.
In response to the unexpected demand the government has asked Seqirus to supply another 950,000 doses, Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy told a conference in Adelaide this week.
More than 10 million doses have already hit the market this year, Professor Murphy told delegates at the Public Health Association of Australia’s 16th national immunisation conference on Tuesday.
The “unprecedented” demand means the department of health is now playing a delicate balancing act of “making sure the right stocks are in the right places”, says Professor Kristine Macartney, acting director at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.
Increased availability and subsidisation, coupled with growing public awareness about the dangers of influenza, were behind the rise in demand, she told the limbic.
Professor Macartney, said along with the state government funded vaccination programs for under-fives in seven out of eight jurisdictions, and two new potent vaccines for over 65s, “I think the public are getting the correct message that flu is not just a trivial cold”, she said.
“It can be a very serious infection and lead to complications in all age groups. We had a very serious flu season last year and that put a lot of stress on the health system.”
The challenge now “is about getting enough vaccines supplied and getting the right stock into the right fridges”, she said.
Media reports this week claim department of health officials have “raided” the fridges of a Canberra GP practice in order to redistribute flu vaccine, amid dwindling supplies.