00:02Warmer weather on the horizon usually signals the end of flu season.
00:07But not this year.
00:09We've had an unusual season because we've only just started to see the flu numbers tick up.
00:14And look at us, we're in August.
00:15Last summer's surge of the Super K strain in SA might explain the delay.
00:20What I think that's done is given our community at a population level some immunity to flu.
00:28But with infectious diseases over a period of time population immunity wanes.
00:34The Super K strain flared here last summer because it took hold during the Northern Hemisphere during winter and soon
00:40spread.
00:41The world's changing. Climate change, international travel, the spread of viruses around the world.
00:46Perhaps we're getting more flu in our summer which is a total change from 15, 20 years ago.
00:54RSV is also keeping doctors busy with 5,702 cases already recorded so far compared to over 5,800 last
01:04year.
01:05Free RSV vaccines were rolled out nationally for adults over 75 this year.
01:11WA has gone a step further funding the up to $350 vaccine for vulnerable people aged 60 to 74.
01:19Personally as a doctor in South Australia I'd love to be able to give those vulnerable patients an RSV vaccine.
01:25And save the health system a huge amount of money as well.
01:28Look I think let's see how we go with this year and review those results and we always make comparisons.
01:35Of course we do when we look at epidemiology between states.
01:38...saving the tissues for spring.
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