Quadrivalent vaccines designed to protect Australians against four strains of this year's influenza virus are now available both in the private market and under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), according to a Health Department update.
Health Minister Greg Hunt urged all Australians to consider getting a flu shot this year, highlighting the vaccine's wide availability including "at many pharmacies".
The flu shot this year covers two A strains of influenza (Michigan and Hong Kong) and two B strains of influenza (Brisbane and Phuket) with no live virus involved.
MEANWHILE pharmacists can advise customers that vaccinating against influenza does more than just protect the individual, according to Monash University Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Allen Cheng.
Writing in The Conversation, Cheng along with the University of Sydney's Kristine Macartney, have highlighted that benefits of immunisation extend well beyond individual protection, incomplete though that may be.
"For vulnerable people, the flu can be the difference between being at home with a chronic disease, and being in hospital with complications such as bacterial pneumonia," they write.
For those who come into contact with vulnerable people such as the elderly, young or sick, vaccination reduces the risk of passing the disease on to those most at risk of serious complications.
Another concern is that the risk of contracting influenza is reduced by only 40-50% in those vaccinated, but the authors point out that "reducing the risk of infection by half is worth the effort."
Under the NIP more than 4.5 million doses of vaccine will be provided free of charge to the vulnerable, namely the very young and the elderly as well as pregnant women and most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
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