4 days after he arrived home back in England he was dead. He was only 53 years old and the doctors are saying it was the "Aussie Flu" which, up until that point I had never heard of. They say he may, or may not, have contracted it on the plane.
Since then I have been reading about it and it is sweeping through the UK and now through the USA. From what I can gather, 120 people have died from this between October and January in the UK but many more suspicions as the monthly death toll for the elderly rose dramatically by the thousands.
23 deaths in one week although it is disputed that they all died of Aussie Flu.After 35 more deaths last week, 120 people across the country have died of flu-related symptoms since early October, compared with 45 in the same period in 2016-17.
The strain mutates very quickly which makes it hard to vaccinate against.Influenza A(H3N2) is being dubbed the "Aussie flu" after it caused the highest number of infections and deaths in Australia during the 2017 winter since the swine flu pandemic in 2009.
Around 170,000 cases of flu have been reported in Australia this season, which is two and a half times more than last year.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health ... 37e7043078Professor Dingall told the Daily Express that this is the most serious flu epidemic since the 1968 pandemic that started in Hong Kong — and killed a million people worldwide.
H3N2 is a mutated strain of flu, meaning the vaccine in Australia has been less effective than hoped.
Mum-of-two Jennifer Thew, who’s originally from Germany, was one of those to die from flu in Australia in September.
She died from acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by flu — even though she worked as a medical receptionist and had been vaccinated against it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... -week.html
Now it has hit the US.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/90 ... -influenzaGPs in England have reported a massive rise in the number of flu cases in the last week, up 78 percent on the week before, with one of this year’s main strains, H3N2, being dubbed Aussie flu because of the problems it caused in Australia during the summer.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies is among those who have written to NHS staff urging them to get vaccinated as soon as possible to reduce the spread of the virus.
Now the United States is bracing itself for for similar difficulties, with public health officials confirming that this year’s flu season was turning into a “moderately severe” one, according to the New York Times.
Dr Daniel B Jernigan, director of the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said about 80 per cent of reported cases were of the H3N2 strain, which has a higher mortality rate among the very young and very old than the milder H1N1 variant.
“What we can see is a very rapid increase in the numbers of people coming in to see their healthcare providers,” Dr Jernigan said.
The rate of hospitalisations for laboratory-confirmed cases of flu doubled last week, rising to 22.7 hospitalisations per 100,000 people, up from 13.7 the prior week.
Seven children died from the flu in the United States last week, bringing the total pediatric flu deaths reported to the CDC this season up to 20.
It was dubbed "Aussie Flu" because it hit Australia so hard last season and we suffered many deaths due to it. Apparently vaccinations have little effect against H3N2.
Why am I just hearing about this now and what do we have in store this winter?
Has the media kept this quiet or have I been under a rock since last winter?
I was reading earlier that they are offering 2 flu jabs this year for the 65+ people and also free flu jabs for little kids, 5 and under.