Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Deputy Chief Health Officer fot NT Health Dr Jacqueline Murdoch says flu cases continue to surge in the NT, just like other areas of the country

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Deputy Chief Health Officer fot NT Health Dr Jacqueline Murdoch says flu cases continue to surge in the NT, just like other areas of the country · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: We do know that just a couple of weeks ago,
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  Speaker 1: we'd spoken about the incidents of flu and the high
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  Speaker 1: volume that we are seeing in the Northern Territory at
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  Speaker 1: the moment. At the time, it was around one thousand
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  Speaker 1: flu cases across the territory, about half of those in
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  Speaker 1: Alice and the other in the top end.
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  Speaker 2: But joining me on the line right now.
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  Speaker 1: To talk a little bit more about the situation that
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing over the last couple of days is Dr
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  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Murdoch, the Depputy Chief Health Officer with Northern Territory Health.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Doctor Murdoch.
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  Speaker 3: Thank good morning, Katie, Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
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  Speaker 1: As I said, about a week or so ago we
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  Speaker 1: spoke about the incidents of flu in the territory. I
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  Speaker 1: think those numbers were around about one thousand, but I
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  Speaker 1: understand that they have well and truly gone up in
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  Speaker 1: recent days.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they have, and we've got now more than two
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  Speaker 3: and a half thousand chases of flu in the Northern
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  Speaker 3: Territory this season, which is really starting to be a
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  Speaker 3: record season for us this year, and that's off the
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  Speaker 3: back of really low numbers last year. And the year before,
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  Speaker 3: because during the pandemic we had closed borders, so we
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  Speaker 3: didn't have many people coming in bringing the flu, and
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  Speaker 3: we obviously had lots of other measures like personal hygiene measures,
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  Speaker 3: social distancing, mask wearing and that sort of stuff. So
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  Speaker 3: the flus really come on with a vengeance this year.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, as I say, I've got over two and
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  Speaker 3: a half thousand cases.
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  Speaker 1: So far, and I'm assuming that they're just the cases
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  Speaker 1: that have maybe needed to be tested for whatever reason.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, So it's likely much higher than that
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  Speaker 3: because lots of people were, you know, just doing the
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  Speaker 3: right thing and staying home until they're better and perhaps
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  Speaker 3: don't need to get tested. So it's probably quite an underestimate,
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  Speaker 3: I would agree.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Jack Lond, do we have any idea how
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  Speaker 1: many of those cases are in the top end and
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  Speaker 1: how many are in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so Central Australia started earlier, so they started seeing
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  Speaker 3: flu earlier, especially with their cold or weather. So they've
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  Speaker 3: got sort of over six hundred cases. Now top end
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  Speaker 3: is sort of over getting up to over twelve hundred,
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  Speaker 3: and the cases in the top end are really starting
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  Speaker 3: to take off at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's not fun.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure that it can actually be quite severe illness
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  Speaker 1: as well for a lot of Territorians. Have we seen
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  Speaker 1: a number of people hospitalized as a result of the flu.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, so we have. It can really knock
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  Speaker 3: you around, can make you very sick, put you in
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  Speaker 3: bed for a week or two, even if you're you know,
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  Speaker 3: otherwise healthy, And we've seen we have seen a number
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  Speaker 3: of people hospitalized so far. So we've got about twenty
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  Speaker 3: people in hospital in the NT with flu at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: and that number is increasing. So we're really encouraging people
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  Speaker 3: to get their flu vaccine because that's that's the best
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  Speaker 3: way of protecting yourself. It'll give you about fifty to
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  Speaker 3: sixty percent protection from getting really sick and needing to
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  Speaker 3: go to hospital.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'm booked in for mine at about one forty today,
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  Speaker 1: so I'll be going to get mine. I'm not sure
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  Speaker 1: whether the horse already bolted in my household though, because
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  Speaker 1: everybody had been pretty crook over the last couple of weeks,
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  Speaker 1: and there does just seem to be a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people that aren't.
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  Speaker 2: That aren't well around the place at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's absolutely right. And look, we'd especially encourage people
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  Speaker 3: who are eligible for the free flu vaccine to come
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  Speaker 3: forward for their vaccine. And so that's people over sixty five,
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  Speaker 3: kids under five, all aboriginal people, and anyone with a
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  Speaker 3: chronic medical condition, and anyone who's pregnant. But we'd really
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  Speaker 3: like to say for kids under five, they really need
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  Speaker 3: to get the flu vaccine this year because lots of
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  Speaker 3: those kids have never seen flu circulating before they were
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  Speaker 3: born after the borders closed, and so their bodies haven't
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  Speaker 3: seen that flu circulating, so they're really vulnerable to severe effects.
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  Speaker 3: And we do know that flu can make little kids
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  Speaker 3: really sick, so those kids really need to get their
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  Speaker 3: flu vaccine as soon as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, good advice. And are there different things that we
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  Speaker 1: can do as well? You know, if we do feel
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  Speaker 1: unwell or if we are concerned that we have the flu,
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  Speaker 1: do we need to go and get tested or is
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  Speaker 1: it just a matter of you know, staying home, looking
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  Speaker 1: after yourself and making sure you don't spread it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean so it depends really the messages, Yes,
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  Speaker 3: stay home, look after yourself. You know, lots of fluid
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  Speaker 3: sleep and panetol usually helps hand hygiene to make sure
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  Speaker 3: you're not spreading it. Mask if you do need to
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  Speaker 3: leave the house. All those things that you know, we've
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  Speaker 3: encouraged with COVID work with flu as well. If you
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  Speaker 3: if you've got underlying medical conditions or you're at risk
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  Speaker 3: of getting sick. So some of those age you know,
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  Speaker 3: categories that we talked about before. You know, if you're concerned,
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  Speaker 3: definitely see your GP to to see to see if
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  Speaker 3: you need to get tested. But as a whole, you
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  Speaker 3: don't need to get tested unless you think you're you're
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  Speaker 3: at risk of getting really sick.
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  Speaker 2: And Jacqueline, I guess it's early days.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we don't know sort of how many cases
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  Speaker 1: we're going to see around the Northern Territory over the
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  Speaker 1: cooler well, we haven't had much of a dry season yet,
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  Speaker 1: but over those drier months, with the numbers so high
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  Speaker 1: at the moment, are you anticipating that they are going
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  Speaker 1: to sort of continue to grow.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, what we know from flu seasons is they
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  Speaker 3: can take sort of eight to ten weeks and we're
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  Speaker 3: really especially the top end, just at the start of that,
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  Speaker 3: so we do expect that the numbers will continue to grow. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: so only one in five territories have had their flu
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  Speaker 3: vaccine so far, so we really want those numbers to
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  Speaker 3: go up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, doctor Jacqueline Murdock, the Deputy Chief Health Officer within Health,
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  Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for having a chat with me.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you.