Kiwis have been warned this flu season could be a tough one due to lower immunity levels as our borders gradually reopen to the rest of the world.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s estimated that the flu killed around 500 New Zealanders and hospitalised 2500 every year. Around 35 per cent of Kiwis were exposed to the virus.
However, for the past two years, the virus has not been detected in the New Zealand community, with the flu cases all being discovered at the border. Six cases were detected in 2020, followed by 14 in 2021.
Now, it’s feared the community could be hard-hit by the flu as its lack of presence here saw Kiwis’ immunity levels drop.
This year’s flu vaccine campaign, which kicks off on Friday, will allow free access to the flu vaccine not only for Kiwis with serious health conditions and those aged over 65, but also Māori and Pasifika over the age of 55. It means a further 39,000 people will be eligible.
University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker told Breakfast it’s a “remarkable situation”.
“This has never happened before – two years without flu and also all these other respiratory viruses, and that’s actually saved 3000 lives in New Zealand and increased life expectancy in New Zealand by about eight months.”
However, Baker said the lack of the virus circulating in the community to help boost immunity levels means “the nation’s immunity is lower to flu at the moment”.
“That’s just another reason why it’s so important to get vaccinated.”
He explained while the flu normally enters the country through travellers and “the whole country is seeded with the virus every winter, we just haven’t had that”.
“Basically, the virus has disappeared from New Zealand for this period so it’s now going to come back this year.”
He warned that Kiwis who are double jabbed or boosted with the Covid-19 vaccine will not have added protection from influenza due to vaccines’ specificity to “the bug that you’re trying to beat".
“It gives you immunity to just that virus or bacteria, or sometimes even one particular sub-type or variant,” he said.
“If you have a Covid-19 infection, the evidence is if you are unlucky enough to get co-infected with influenza, you do much worse … so that’s why you really need to have both vaccines on board.”
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