As soon as international borders open again, health experts say, there will be a big jump in the number of flu cases in Australia over the next few months.
Figures from the Federal Department of Health show that there have only been 598 confirmed cases of flu in Australia this year.
This was very different from the last flu season before the coronavirus pandemic of 2019, when more than 300,000 people got sick.
But there have already been a few cases of flu brought to Australia by people from other countries. Dr. Sheena Sullivan from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza confirmed that the cases were among international travellers.
People from South Asia who went to the Howard Springs quarantine centre in the Northern Territory were found to have infections.
“Because the incubation period, infectious duration, and serial interval for influenza are short, the current length of hotel isolation (14 days) has prohibited patients from exiting quarantine while they were still contagious,” Dr. Sullivan noted.
“If quarantine periods are reduced or eliminated, ill travellers might trigger epidemics.” Dr. Sullivan suggested that all travellers who were going home should get a flu shot before getting on the plane.
“Because of the similarities in how the disease shows up, is diagnosed, and is treated, the many resources that were made available during the COVID-19 pandemic should also be used to lessen the effects of flu outbreaks,” she wrote.
Professor Ian Barr, who is the deputy director of the WHO collaborating centre for reference and research on influenza, said that he thought there would be a lot of cases next year.
Professor Barr also said that he was worried about the expected rise in the number of people coming into quarantine from abroad in the last few weeks of this year.
