New Zealand is having an RSV moment
There are a few concerning media stories of empty offices and schools in New Zealand due to respiratory illnesses – coughs and colds and “the flu”. So is #NZflu2026 in Read More …
Category: Influenza
Well, the day had to come. “Bird flu” flies into Australia on a feathered wing.
Lock up the chooks! According to Australia’s national broadcaster, Western Australia (WA) is the site for the first importation to the Australian mainland – via a bird – of an Read More …
Looks like Flu has reset in Australia
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a brand-new respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2. With that introduction, as suspected, lots of things were thrown into disarray. One of those was the circulation of other respiratory Read More …
Is there more flu in Australia and New Zealand than normal for Christmas? Hell Yes!
Happy FluMas, ya filthy animals! With a new flu variant – subclade K – dominant, Australia and New Zealand are seeing a very unusual bout of seasonal influenza (flu) as Read More …
A Flunami in July
Australia has recorded its largest number of laboratory-confirmed influenza virus detections among sick people for any July on record. While the numbers may be slowing, there is no way of Read More …
Flu down under is a July thing
This is a graph I didn’t know I wanted to make. But now I have, I needed to make it! It shows the influenza virus detections reported to laboratories in Read More …
United States influenza: biggest season in 15 years of data
The United States has been suffering from many influenza virus infections. And it looks like those are translating into a “flunami” of hospitalisations, which has resulted in the US CDC Read More …
No new A/H7N8 chook farms hit in Victoria so far
Two poultry farms in the southern Australian State of Victoria have been quarantined for high pathogenicity avian influenza A/H7N8 infections, but spread to additional farms has not been observed so Read More …
Excess deaths align with COVID-19
There are minimisers who spread misinformation, like butter on hot toast. And yes, it can sink in and spread further. One of these piles of melted fat ridiculously claims that Read More …
The 2023 southern hemisphere influenza vaccine
Each year we get a new vaccine for each hemisphere. The design gets settled six months out, and sometimes a lot can change in that time. So how does the Read More …
‘Endemic’ covers a lot of biology, but we’re probably not there yet for COVID-19
Right up front, I’m going to repeat myself by saying that I think COVID-19 will become a disease that has endemic as well as epidemic states at some point in Read More …
An early & big flu rise in Australia
Influenza (flu) cases have been rising rapidly in Australia this year. Some see this as a result of waning immunity during our border closures. Some see this as the harbinger Read More …
Thank goodness we did all the work
Thank goodness we didn’t hold off on opening up to see what Omicron was capable of. We had to have Christmas. And there were national cabinet agreements. Anyway, how could Read More …
An early look at influenza in the US highlights that the south does not predict the north
Influenza (flu) hit Australia earlier in 2019 than it had for many years. It reached a very high peak of cases and the flu season lasted for longer than usual. Read More …
H3N2 is 50 years old and still going strong
The highly variable H3N2 influenza viruses, which seem to cause us the most trouble, heartache and headlines, have only been with us since 1968. These tiny droplets of dread emerged Read More …