A Newcastle organisation that runs an online surveillance system aimed at tracking outbreaks of flu says it is aiming to have around 20,000 participants Australia-wide this coming flu season.
The Flu Tracking system was launched in 2006 and involves participants completing a weekly survey about whether they are suffering flu-like symptoms.
Hunter Public Health physician Craig Dalton says the tracking gives a good indication of how the community is actually coping with the flu.
“We had 12,000 people respond to the survey last week, so I think we’re going to go over about possibly 20,000 this year.
“It gives us a reality check of what is actually happening out there in the community.
“So particularly during the (2009) pandemic they did a lot more testing and it looked like there was a lot of flu.
“But in fact the actual rates of cough and fever and flu-like symptoms in the community didn’t change that much during the pandemic.”
Dr Dalton says so far there are no signs this year’s flu season will be anything out of the ordinary.
He says with the region still enjoying a particularly warm autumn, there is every chance the flu season will also be mild.
“That’s like looking at a crystal ball, it’s impossible to tell.
“There certainly has been some increased illness in people, 15 to 50 years of age in the US, who aren’t normally hit too bad by flu, but they are when it’s the old 2009 pandemic strain, but to say that that’s going to happen in Australia is purely speculation.
“It’s fairly low level influenza activity at this stage.”
Source: ABC