Pharmacy Daily | Flu record a wake-up call

AUSTRALIA'S record flu season has sounded the alarm on Australia's influenza vaccination rates, with more than 410,000 lab-confirmed cases reported so far in 2025.

The case numbers have already outstripped the previous all-time high of 365,000 recorded last year, with Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) President Dr Michael Wright describing the latest figures as "a wake-up call".

Meanwhile flu vaccination rates have plateaued or decreased, with only 25.7% of children aged six months to five years vaccinated in 2025 - the lowest since 2021.

Rates for patients over the age of 65 have also slipped, with the 60.5% rate the lowest since 2020.

"This is not a record we want to be breaking, we must boost vaccination rates and reverse this trend," he said.

"This should act as a wake-up call to all patients across Australia."

Dr Wright has called for action ahead of next year's peak flu season.

"Governments can take concrete steps to improve our vaccination figures," he said.

He pointed to the free intranasal vaccinations being offered in Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia, urging other state governments to follow suit.

"The vaccination rate for young children, who are at increased risk of contracting a severe flu infection, has fallen to just one in four and they're also coming down with influenza more often than any other patient group," Dr Wright said.

The Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee (AIVC) has announced its recommendations for the 2026 southern hemisphere trivalent influenza vaccines, aligning with World Health Organization advice.

The B/Yamagata-lineage influenza component, which was in the quadrivalent vaccine, will no longer be included, as the virus has not been detected since 2020.

All vaccines will now be trivalent, and will also contain two new strains for the Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) subtype virus component. KB