Health professionals say the cost-of-living crisis and vaccine "fatigue" are causing Australians to skip lifesaving jabs, with just 32 per cent of the population currently vaccinated against the flu.
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Key points:
- Data shows 8.5 million Australians received flu vaccines between March 1 and July 9
- That is almost 2 million less than the 10.4 million at the same time last year
- Children aged six months to five years are among the least likely to be vaccinated
Australian Immunisation Register data shows 8.5 million Australians were vaccinated against influenza between March 1 and July 9 this year, compared to 10.4 million at the same time last year.
Vaccination rates decreased in all states and territories, with the biggest drops recorded in South Australia (down 20.6 per cent), New South Wales (down 19.5 per cent), Victoria (down 18.9 per cent) and Queensland (down 18.6 per cent).
Meanwhile, there have been 116,473 influenza notifications reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System between January 1 to June 25 this year.
While health workers expected flu cases to surge after governments wound back COVID-19 social distancing and mask restrictions, they said this year's lower-vaccination rate meant the disease was spreading more rapidly through the community.
"The virus itself, less immunity naturally and less uptake in vaccines — all of those things combined together can make a pretty bad flu season," Royal College of General Practitioners SA chairperson Sian Goodson said.
"Unless the vaccine rate improves, we could be in for quite a large number of flu cases this year."
Influenza is a highly infectious respiratory viral illness that can result in breathing difficulties and pneumonia.
To June 25, 1,236 Australians were hospitalised with the flu, of whom 80 were admitted directly to intensive care.
A further 107 Australians have died after catching the flu this year.
Dr Goodson said the country's low-vaccination rate was "concerning" given how serious the disease could be.
"For people without underlying medical conditions, often it's a week of feeling very unwell and being in bed and not going to work, but for people who are older or very young, or who have other health conditions, it can be very serious indeed," she said.
Pharmacy guild says cost pressures 'a factor'
Pharmacy Guild SA vice-president Greg Scarlett said the number of people getting vaccinated against the flu at his Adelaide pharmacy had dropped by about 30 per cent over the past year.
He said there had been a "strong response" to vaccinations at the start of this year's flu season, but bookings had tapered off over the past month.
"We have noticed there hasn't been as much demand coming through the pharmacy as we would have expected and certainly as we experienced last year," he said.
"I think it's a significant reduction."
Mr Scarlett said rising cost-of-living pressures made it hard for some people to afford flu vaccines, with a family-of-four charged up to $100 to get vaccinated.
"It's a significant expense for a family to commit to, to get everybody vaccinated," he said.
"Particularly for cost-of-living pressures these days, the cost of an influenza vaccination can be a factor."
Vaccines are free for children aged under five, pregnant women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, those aged over 65 and people with certain underlying chronic medical conditions.
Western Australia made flu shots free for everyone during May and June, but other states, including South Australia, have not adopted similar incentives.
SA Health Communicable Disease Control Branch nursing director Noel Lally said the cost of vaccines was not impacting people's willingness to get vaccinated.
"Whilst we're always looking at how the immunisation programs can be rolled out, we're confident that at the moment cost is not a barrier," he said.
But Immunisation Coalition chairperson Dr Rod Pearce said making flu vaccines free would improve vaccination rates.
"We think the benefit of making it [the vaccine] available sends a message to the community that it's important," he said.
"We think it can change the message."
Patients 'fed up' with vaccines
Dr Pearce said "COVID fatigue" was also impacting vaccination rates, with people less proactive about getting vaccinated after the pandemic.
"The confusion between the significance of flu and the significance of COVID is highlighted particularly in children, where flu is quite a nasty disease in under-fives," he said.
"People, we think, are getting confused about that, and not focusing on their routine vaccines and the flu."
Dr Goodson said her patients had also experienced "COVID fatigue".
"I have noticed some of my patients saying they're a bit over it," she said.
"They've had their COVID vaccines, they've had other vaccines, they don't want anything more.
"They're kind of a bit fed up with vaccines and that's the sort of thing that we need to counter and explain why it's so important."
Mr Lally said people were not taking the flu as seriously as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Also, there are far more priorities and pressures on people these days in terms of their general life and perhaps the influenza vaccine isn't occupying that priority that it used to," he said.
"These are certainly things that we're looking at … and we'll use our learnings from this season to inform how we approach the season next year."
Parents urged to vaccinate children
Children aged six months to five years are among the least likely in Australia to be vaccinated against the flu, despite being eligible for a free vaccination.
The latest data shows just 22 per cent of children in that age group are vaccinated nationally, compared to 61 per cent of those aged 65 and above.
Just under 70 per cent of people admitted to hospital with confirmed influenza since April were aged under 16, with 5.9 per cent admitted directly to intensive care.
Dr Goodson said it was important for parents to get their children vaccinated, as they are particularly vulnerable to the flu.
"Often younger children haven't been exposed to many viruses because of COVID and other reasons," she said.
"So, they're particularly vulnerable this year."
