Influenza has claimed four more lives in the past week in Western Australia with the state’s influenza related deaths increasing 940% to 52 lives.
While it is shaping up to be WA’s most deadly flu season in a decade, the Health Department warns against comparing cases from year to year with this year’s season starting two months earlier, making the comparison of severity difficult.
Lauren Bloomfield from Edith Cowan University’s School of Medical and Health Sciences says considering the number of cases was high this season, the importance of the yearly vaccination must be reiterated however understand it works as one of many tools in protection against influenza.