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Parents are being warned to watch out for flu-like symptoms in their children as a virulent strain of the virus appears to have claimed the life of a sixth child.
The latest victim is a two-year-old boy from the city of Bathurst, west of Sydney, who died of a flu-related illness.
In Queensland, fears of an epidemic have prompted the State Government to release a stockpile of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to aged care homes and pharmacies.
But disease experts say parents should not panic.
During the winter, it is not uncommon for people to say they have got the flu, when really they have got just a head cold.
Alan Hampson knows the difference. He is the convenor of Australian Influenza Specialists Group and an adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"It's not your runny nose and sneezing, more commonly it comes on as a fever with chills, headache, febrile aches and pains and the sort of thing that makes you feel you should go to bed, and in fact that's probably where you should be until you start to feel really better," he said.
Across the country, hospital emergency rooms also know the symptoms.
Complications caused by a virulent strain of the virus are believed responsible for the deaths of six children, as a well as a 37-year-old Queensland man.
Dr Jeremy McAnulty, the director of communicable diseases with New South Wales Health, told ABC NewsRadio the latest victim appears to be the two-year-old boy from Bathurst.
"We had preliminary information back last evening that influenza A had been identified in the child, so we're very suspicious that that has contributed to the child's death. But there's further work to be done," he said.
Those at risk
Experts say it is usually older people who suffer the most during flu season, but Dr Hampson says the virus also poses considerable risks for other age groups.
"From time to time we do see people who would otherwise appear to be normal and healthy succumb to influenza, and unfortunately that does include children.
"The Americans started to recognise this as being a significant thing about three or four years ago in one of their worst winters that they'd had for a while, when they recorded something like 150 odd childhood deaths.
"And when they looked at those, they found that about half of them were in children who had identifiable risk conditions. But the other half, there was no identified risk condition. And so they're now monitoring, each year, this phenomenon of childhood deaths.
"We really haven't seen it in a significant level, or we haven't recorded in a significant level in Australia in the past, but undoubtedly, if you look hard and if we did have a register of this, we would see probably a few deaths occurring in most years."
Dr Hampson says, unlike adults, children are susceptible to all forms of the virus.
"Kids, generally speaking, are going to be meeting all three families of influenza viruses - the two influenza As and the influenza B - something that's quite novel. And so they are likely to suffer a severe illness," he said.
"Usually, though, they do respond very well and bounce back very quickly, but there's just these rare occasions when the virus, or virus in combination with something else, such as a bacterial infection, then becomes overwhelming for the child."
SOURCE
there now has been 14th deaths of this deadly virus, and the health minister thinks that it is still not a case of emergency for the prescription drug to this virus to become available for those over the counter!!
i have already taken my daughter to the doctor and he thinks that she doesnt have the symptoms, but i think otherwise!!
for those in aus please get vaccinated against this thing!!!
The latest victim is a two-year-old boy from the city of Bathurst, west of Sydney, who died of a flu-related illness.
In Queensland, fears of an epidemic have prompted the State Government to release a stockpile of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to aged care homes and pharmacies.
But disease experts say parents should not panic.
During the winter, it is not uncommon for people to say they have got the flu, when really they have got just a head cold.
Alan Hampson knows the difference. He is the convenor of Australian Influenza Specialists Group and an adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"It's not your runny nose and sneezing, more commonly it comes on as a fever with chills, headache, febrile aches and pains and the sort of thing that makes you feel you should go to bed, and in fact that's probably where you should be until you start to feel really better," he said.
Across the country, hospital emergency rooms also know the symptoms.
Complications caused by a virulent strain of the virus are believed responsible for the deaths of six children, as a well as a 37-year-old Queensland man.
Dr Jeremy McAnulty, the director of communicable diseases with New South Wales Health, told ABC NewsRadio the latest victim appears to be the two-year-old boy from Bathurst.
"We had preliminary information back last evening that influenza A had been identified in the child, so we're very suspicious that that has contributed to the child's death. But there's further work to be done," he said.
Those at risk
Experts say it is usually older people who suffer the most during flu season, but Dr Hampson says the virus also poses considerable risks for other age groups.
"From time to time we do see people who would otherwise appear to be normal and healthy succumb to influenza, and unfortunately that does include children.
"The Americans started to recognise this as being a significant thing about three or four years ago in one of their worst winters that they'd had for a while, when they recorded something like 150 odd childhood deaths.
"And when they looked at those, they found that about half of them were in children who had identifiable risk conditions. But the other half, there was no identified risk condition. And so they're now monitoring, each year, this phenomenon of childhood deaths.
"We really haven't seen it in a significant level, or we haven't recorded in a significant level in Australia in the past, but undoubtedly, if you look hard and if we did have a register of this, we would see probably a few deaths occurring in most years."
Dr Hampson says, unlike adults, children are susceptible to all forms of the virus.
"Kids, generally speaking, are going to be meeting all three families of influenza viruses - the two influenza As and the influenza B - something that's quite novel. And so they are likely to suffer a severe illness," he said.
"Usually, though, they do respond very well and bounce back very quickly, but there's just these rare occasions when the virus, or virus in combination with something else, such as a bacterial infection, then becomes overwhelming for the child."
SOURCE
there now has been 14th deaths of this deadly virus, and the health minister thinks that it is still not a case of emergency for the prescription drug to this virus to become available for those over the counter!!
i have already taken my daughter to the doctor and he thinks that she doesnt have the symptoms, but i think otherwise!!
for those in aus please get vaccinated against this thing!!!