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September 6, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Fed: 2002 Bumper Year for Flu"

Australian Associated Press (AAP) (aap.com.au) (09/02/02); Skatssoon, Judy

From May until August 13th of this year, 1,904 people were confirmed to have influenza during the peak months of the winter flu season in Australia, at least 10 times the number of cases reported last year by the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia.  The worst-affected state was Queensland, with 661 cases, and experts say that the current trend may only be the beginning as the statistics were derived primarily from those who were ill enough to be hospitalized.  Alan Hampson, the deputy director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Influenza in Victoria, said the increase in cases between last year and this year may be due to more virulent strains circulating or immunity levels dropping off in the community. Senior medical virologist Dr. Dominic Dwyer of the Westmead Hospital's Center for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology observed that this year's flu season arrived earlier and was punctuated by high levels of the B strain, including the aggressive Hong Kong variety.

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