The 2018 flu season was one of the mildest in half a decade, NSW have declared. The end of flu season was called on Monday.
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NSW Health counted just more than 15,000 confirmed cases of flu around the state between January 1 and October 17, compared to more than 100,000 cases for the same period in 2017.
Similarly, reported deaths from flu were considerably fewer in 2018, numbering 31, the agency said, compared to 661 reports in 2017.
“There was a 50 per cent increase in requests for flu vaccines across NSW, and the vaccine this year was a better match to the main flu strains, predominantly influenza A(H1N1),” NSW Health’s communicable diseases director Dr Vicky Sheppeard said.
“The latest data shows that less than five per cent of swab tests taken in the last week found flu virus, which is the threshold used to mark the beginning and end of the flu season.”
“The season began in the first week of August and lasted nine weeks, peaking in the first week of September.”
NSW Health distributed more than 2.3 million doses of government-funded vaccine to GPs and other providers this year.