Flu cases have exploded in with health authorities bracing for a horror season this winter.
More than 63,000 cases have already been reported in 2025, an alarming figure that is higher the average number of cases over the past five years.
Experts have warned the high number of cases coupled with a low vaccination rate could lead to a ‘severe’ flu season.
The Royal n College of General Practitioners (RACGP) called for action earlier this year after over 48,000 cases were reported in the first quarter of 2025.
In the same period, in 2024, there were 30,494 cases, and in 2023, there were 18,582 cases.
Of the cases reported in the first three months of 2025, 22 per cent were in children aged nine and younger and eight per cent were in those aged 10–14.
A further six per cent were diagnosed in adults aged 35-39 years old.
Around 38 per cent of reported cases were in NSW, and 22 per cent were each reported in Queensland and Victoria.
This year’s early rise in flu cases led to the RACGP calling on GPs and the community to ‘work together and get vaccinated’.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright revealed that over 1,000 deaths in 2024 involved the flu.
He said this was a ‘67.3 per cent increase on 2023, while more than 4200 people were admitted to hospital’.
‘When you consider that 2024 also saw 2,503 people die from Covid and 78 from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, it’s easy to see how a “perfect storm” of infection could push our health system to near breaking point,’ Dr Wright added.
The flu can cause severe illness including severe bronchitis, inflammation of the brain, heart problems like myocarditis and in rare cases muscle issues such as acute viral myositis.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, young children, older adults, people with chronic medical conditions, immunocompromised people and smokers are at greater risk of severe illness or complications.
Flu vaccination rates have continued to fall in recent years.
According to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, in 2020, 13.6 per cent of people aged 15 to 50 had been vaccinated by May.
In comparison, 8.2 per cent have been vaccinated this year so far.
Under the National Immunisation Program in , the flu vaccine is free for people with certain medical conditions, young children, pregnant women, adults aged 65 and older, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Professor Julie Leask from the University of Sydney told SBS News ‘s flu vaccination rates are ‘dire’.
‘We need to remind people that this is not just about protecting yourself from what could be a rotten couple of weeks laid out, days of work, feeling really crook,’ she said.
‘If I get a flu vaccine, I’m less likely to get the flu and therefore much less likely to pass it on to my old mother, who I really don’t want to make sick from influenza because she could get really sick from it.’