Experts urge vaccines ahead of potentially deadly flu season

Last year's flu season was our most deadly in history, but health experts are warning that 2018 could be even worse.

A total of 250,000 Aussies were confirmed to have contracted influenza last year, with 1100 dying.

Thousands more cases went unreported.

Of those who died, 90 percent were aged over 65, pushing scientists like Professor Dominic Dwyer from NSW Health Pathology to boost the strength of the vaccines they produce this year.

“It’s been realised that the older you are, the less effective the influenza vaccine is,” Prof Dwyer told A Current Affair.

“There’s been a lot of work in trying to get a stronger vaccine for older people and in Australia, we’ve now got two examples of that.”

However, the elderly are not the only people who should be vigilant about their flu shot this season.

Paul Jans, 49, was struck down so badly with influenza A that he was hospitalised.

“I contracted what I thought was a cold, I thought I’d just ride it out. But then after two days I finally crawled myself out of bed and got myself to the GP,” the father of three said.

“I got to the clinic and my temperature was over 40 degrees, so my doctor encouraged me right then and there to go straight to hospital.”

But Paul is by no means alone.

Alistair Massey, aged just one, contracted influenza and ended up in hospital for three days receiving IV fluids and medication.

His mother, Gillian, warns that no parent should have to go through what she and Alistair went through, and every child should be vaccinated against the flu this year.

“Being a mother, the first thing that runs through your head is always the worst-case scenario,” Gillian said.

Both Paul, and Gillian and Alistair, will never miss a flu shot again.

Professor Kerryn Phelps says that it’s important that “as many people as possible have the flu vaccine.”

Prof Phelps also confirmed that it is a myth that you can catch the flu from the vaccine itself.