Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Centre for Disease Control Head of Disease Surveillance Dr Peter Markey says there have been 165 flu cases in the Top End so far this year, with about 20 cases recorded a day

Transcript

Centre for Disease Control Head of Disease Surveillance Dr Peter Markey says there have been 165 flu cases in the Top End so far this year, with about 20 cases recorded a day · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here to talk a little bit more about the fact
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: that the NT Health has recorded an increase in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: number of influenza cases in the Northern Territory in recent weeks.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Since the beginning of January, so there's been about one
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen cases as I understand it confirmed in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the NT, mostly in the Greater Darwin and Top End region.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to tell us a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation is doctor Peter Marky,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the head of Surveillance for the Center for Disease Control.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, doctor Marky.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good o Katie. How are you going?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good. Great to have you on the show. Peter,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: A spike in cases of influenza in recent weeks. Do
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: we have any idea what's caused at well.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: It's interesting we often get a in the Top end.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: We often get a flu season during the wet season,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: but usually it's later than this. We often get rise
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: at this sort of end of February March, so this
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: year it's a bit earlier than expected. So we have
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: noticed the increase. It actually started sort of last couple
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: of weeks of December over in the western side, and
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: it's sort of moved over into Darwin and now into
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: East Darnham and we're now up to one hundred and
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: sixty five cases for the year so far. So we've
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: had an increase in the last the last couple of days,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and so that is a lot more than we expect.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: And of course, you know these are just the positive cases,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: so you know, not everyone gets tested, so yes, the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: iceberg if you like, So we suspect that there is
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: more more flu across the top end.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Goodness may so one hundred and sixty five cases, that's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: jumped fairly significantly over the last week or so.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, we're getting about we're getting probably twenty or so
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: cases a day and it's a little bit hard to
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: predict how it's going to go because we did think
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: it was starting to taper, but in the last couple
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: of days it's gone back up again. So we have
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to certainly be on the lookout. And that's why we
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: were sort of warning everyone about the flu.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Peter, have people been becoming quite unwell?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Well, this is a this is a flu b outbreak,
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  Speaker 2: and generally speaking, people if flub isn't as sort of
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: serious as flu A. But there's still been hospital admissions
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and we haven't had any deaths so far, thank goodness,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: but there's still been some people admitted to hospital, so
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: people can still get very sick with it. So it's
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: important that people do if they do get the flu.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: When we like to encourage people of course to you know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: most importantly to stay at home and wash your hands.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Wash your hands prevent prevents you're getting the flu and
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: spreading the flu. So good idea to wash your hands
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: and wear a mask if you go out if you've
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: got symptoms, but stay at home if you can. And
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: also there is treatment for the flu. So it's important
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: to if you you know, contact your GP if you're
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: if you if you're feeling really unwell with it, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: or if you have risk factors of more severe disease,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: particularly if you've got you know, other things wrong with
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: your with your lungs or any other chronic respiratory infections
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: or any chronic disease. It's a goot idea to contact
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: your GP early in the disease and sometimes you can
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: arrange to get some treatment.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And Peter, how do you know it's influenza and not
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, like it's not just a cold or
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: you know, not COVID or something else. Is it a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: matter of actually presenting to your GP.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, if you want to be certain, it is. Really
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: it's you know, you can say one thing or the other,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: like some people say loss of smell for COVID et cetera.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: But you know they all overlap, and so it's really
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: hard to be certain about what you've got without getting
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: without getting tested. So so, and not that everybody, of
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: course has to get tested, but certainly if you're feeling
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: crooked enough and you're thinking, well, I I want to
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: talk to a doctor about this because I want to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: get some treatment, or you have the risk factors for
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: severe COVID or whatever, then it's important to contact your
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: GP and arrange to have some testing done. Because of
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: course there's treatment for or COVID as well as as
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: well as flu, so it's important to find out what
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: you've got.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, how did the case numbers compare to previous months?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Well, that's a bit difficult to say that. It's because
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: the test, the way people get tested is it changes
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: over time. Like we had a you know, our peak
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of last year. People might remember in May and June
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: we had a really big peak of flu cases and
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the positive people was up. I think we had sort
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of you know, last year, thousands you know, were getting
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: eight hundred a week and that's because everybody was getting
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: tested because you know, they were worried they had COVID.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: So there's so everyone was getting tested and now sort
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: of testing has sort of waned off a bit. So
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: it's a little bit hard to compare between seasons, if
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you like. But certainly we know that in the west
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: of you know, the southwest, the road communities that it
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: really has been you know strong, they had big, big
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: tack rates in the community and the large proportion of
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: people got the flu. So of course not everyone was tested,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: so it's important to be on the lookout and you know,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: seek advice if you're feeling unwell or if you have
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: those risk factors, which I think have been widely circulated
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: and people are aware.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Also vaccine, it's worth mentioning that the flu vaccine, there
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: is still some available from last year. The virus looks
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: as though it's still you know, will be you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: the vaccine will still work against the circulating B strain
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: that's going around. So if people haven't been vaccinated and
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: they can get hold of some of the vaccine. It
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: is still it is still available in some of some
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: of the chemists. Be course, the new vaccine will be
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: out in April, so.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Doctor Marky, by the sounds of it, we can probably
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: expect that there's going to be some, you know, some
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: more cases out there. And I guess if people aren't
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: sort of getting tested, it's hard to know. But the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: best thing to do is to try and take yourself.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: If you get crooks, stay.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Home, that's right, and yeah, stay home. And if you
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: have to go out, of course, wear a mask. That's
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the most and socially distanced. And I think people just
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: from looking around, I think some people are often you know,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: they're still of some people wearing mask outside and or
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: in the shops. And that's a good thing and a
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: sensible thing. And I think, you know, that sort of behavior,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: mask wearing, etc. Is a good thing to keep in mind.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, sort of going on into the future,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I think it's a good thing not to spread the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: viruses around once you get them.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, Doctor Peter Margy, the head of surveillance
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  Speaker 1: for the Center for Disease Control, always good to catch
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: up with you. Thanks for your time this morning.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, it was a pleasure.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you