In January, 63 people died from influenza in Australia – roughly double the number seen in the same month in previous years.
AMA Vice President Julian Rait said high caseloads and low vaccination rates had led to a perfect storm for influenza in Australia.
“We could easily see the same situation this year and we could even exceed that with this new ‘Super-K’ variant,” he told nine.com.au.
Rait has pointed the finger squarely at Australia’s low – and falling – flu vaccination rates for multiple years of horror flu seasons.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of all Australians were receiving a flu shot – now, that figure is closer to one in three.
Older people and children under the age of five are at increased risk of flu-related death.
But in 2025, only 25 per cent of children under five received a flu shot, while 60.5 per cent of people over 65 were vaccinated. – the lowest number in six years.
In the 46 patients studied, getting vaccinated only prompted a 1.7 to 2-fold increase in patients’ antibodies to H3N2 subclade K – nicknamed ‘Super-K’ – compared to an almost 3-fold increase for other strains.
Combined with a lower baseline immunity to ‘Super-K’ due to it being a new strain, this means those studied had as much as 7.8 times lower levels of antibodies to fight off a ‘Super-K’ infection than previous strains of flu.
However, the AMA said this wouldn’t apply to Australia’s new seasonal flu shot, due to be rolled out next month.
New recommendations by the World Health Organization have seen a subclade K variant incorporated into this year’s trivalent flu shot for Australia, which should boost its efficacy against the ‘Super-K’ strain.
Epidemiologist Dr David Muscatello said the influenza virus was “constantly mutating”, with a significantly new and more infectious strain popping up around once every 10 years.
“The virus is drifting all the time because it’s constantly mutating, so every ten years or so we might see a drift that more easily infects people in the population,” he told nine.com.au.
However, Muscatello was quick to point out that there is no evidence to suggest that the ‘Super-K’ strain causes more serious illness.
There, more than 90 per cent of influenza A cases are now the ‘Super-K’ variant.
So far, 90 children have died from flu-related complications.
The Australian Medical Association is now urging Australians to roll up their sleeves and help boost vaccination rates.
“Super K is much more easily transmitted and clearly with our low vaccination rates, it could well take off in winter when people spend more time indoors together,” Rait warned.
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