Doctor's warning to Aussies amid staggering rise in cases of common winter illness
As temperatures began to drop last month, a young Sydney woman rolled up a sleeve for her annual flu vaccination. Hoping to dodge the contagious illness as cases spike around the country, Mikaela could never have predicted the battle she was soon going to endure.
Just weeks later, she was struck down by influenza, and despite having had the flu several times before, this would prove to be by far the worst. 'It was actually quite shocking how bad it was,' the 23-year-old told Yahoo News. 'I've never been sick like that before.'
After falling ill, Mikaela developed a 'painful dry cough' that triggered an acute asthma flare-up.
'I don't usually suffer from asthma — it's more of an underlying condition for me — so that was quite scary. I also had congestion, really bad sinus pain, and terrible fatigue. One day I slept for 14 hours straight,' she said.
The junior graphic designer was 'so unwell' she was forced to take a week of sick leave from her first full-time job.
Desperate to relieve her symptoms, Mikaela booked an appointment with her GP, but the only spot available was days away.
'I was just trying to hold out at home until then, but it feels pretty awful when you're unwell and you just want to be seen so you can get the prescriptions you need, and you have to wait three additional days,' she told Yahoo, noting her GP doesn't offer Telehealth services.
'I feel like that is really indicative of how busy they are at the moment.'
After being forced to trek from her home in Newtown to Sydney's CDB via two busses, the 23-year-old was given some 'pretty heavy duty' medications , including codeine cough syrup and a steroid inhaler.
'I've been sick for three weeks now. I'm at the tail end of it but even three weeks out, I'm still battling symptoms,' she said.
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Australia is in the midst of an intense and early flu season. While Sunday marks the official start of winter, the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) has already tracked over 92,000 lab-confirmed influenza cases nationally.
Telehealth platform Updoc has seen a 134 per cent increase in flu-like consultation requests in May, 2025 compared to May, 2024. Concerningly, the surge appears to be plaguing the country's most vulnerable age group — those over the age of 65. Geographically, every state and territory has recorded at least a 100 per cent increase in appointments.
'Post-Covid, seasonal flu is resurging aggressively due to low community immunity and delayed vaccine uptake,' Dr Jamie Phillips, Updoc's Chief Medical Officer, told Yahoo. 'As a doctor who works in an emergency department in Queensland, over the last few weeks I've seen an increasing number of patients presenting to our ED with flu-like symptoms.
'Often my patients tell me they have come to ED as they are struggling to access their usual GP, they don't have a regular GP or have been advised that they can't be seen due to having respiratory symptoms.' Influenza is not a benign illness — early intervention reduces time off work and saves lives, he added.
Earlier this month Professor Patrick Reading, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, said that while the increased cases this time of year is considered unusual, it highlights just how unpredictable the flu can be.
'Despite the increased influenza activity, we can't currently predict the severity of the upcoming season in Australia,' Reading said. 'This will be dependent on a range of factors, which virus subtype becomes dominant or which strain becomes dominant.'
Early infections may not be as a result of changes to the influenza virus, he argued, but may be influenced by behavioural changes such increased travel and declining vaccination rates.
Influenza A and B viruses are responsible for most seasonal flu outbreaks, but each year sees a different mix of subtypes, making the virus difficult to predict and control. Aussies have been urged to get the flu jab to protect themselves, especially those considered at high risk including young children, the elderly, pregnant women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Meanwhile, a new Covid-19 subvariant, NB. 1.8.1, is beginning to take hold in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, sparking concern among health authorities as Australia heads into the winter months.
According to the latest NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report, Covid-19 and influenza activity remain low overall, but early signs point to a gradual increase in Covid-19 infections, with test positivity rising to 5.7 per cent in the week ending May 17.
While the subvariant does not appear to cause more severe illness than earlier strains, its rapid growth is raising flags both locally and internationally.
With NCA NewsWire
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