Loading The federal Department of Health is reporting an unusual increase in influenza activity in most states and territories. NSW Health data released on Friday revealed 66 confirmed influenza deaths in that state in the six months to June 30. Of them, 26 were in residential care facilities and among people with other significant health issues. More than 2 million doses of the flu vaccine have been distributed so far this year, making it a record year for the vaccinations, a Victorian health department spokesman confirmed. The director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, Kanta Subbarao, has warned that the flu shot is not foolproof.

The effectiveness of the flu vaccine was generally below 60 per cent, she said. But Monash University's head of microbiology Stephen Turner said the vaccinations had proven effective in most cases this year, with GPs reporting that the bulk of those coming down with the flu had not yet had the shot. "Clinicians seem to think that the people presenting with the flu are the ones that haven't been vaccinated," Professor Turner said. "There could be a bit of a mismatch of the vaccine, but if you get the vaccine you do seem to be better protected." It has been a horror year for the flu, with 23,600 diagnoses so far this year in Victoria compared with 2500 around July last year.

Loading Around this time in 2017 - one of the worst years for the flu in recent times - there were 3400 cases across the state. By the end of the year, a whopping total of 48,000 diagnoses were recorded. "It's a serious season, it started early, probably around April, May, and usually doesn't get going until July, August," Professor Turner said. "The number of cases is significantly higher than the last couple of seasons. "For some reason, people were also presenting with the flu over the summer, which is unusual." Across the country, about 120,000 notifications of laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza have been made to the country's disease surveillance system.

In the past quarter (between March and June) there were more than 60,000 cases of the flu reported, which was 9.7 times the quarterly rolling five-year average. Nicole La Gruta, who heads up the T cell development laboratory in Monash's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is researching how future flu shots could better safeguard people from the illness. Her research looks at how T cells interact with the virus, which could help pave the way for a new vaccination that shields people against multiple strains for several years. "The major drawback with the current vaccines is that they only elicit antibody responses, not T cell responses," Professor La Gruta said. "The targets of antibodies are the most variable parts, so for every season you need a new vaccine as the virus keeps changing.