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Speaker 1: Now we know the Northern Territory has been hit hard

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Speaker 1: in the past month by an influenza outbreak which has

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Speaker 1: taken as I understand it, eight lives. Now there have

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Speaker 1: been two thy eight hundred and ninety five notifications of

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Speaker 1: influenza in the Northern Territory so far this year. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line is Anti Health's public health physician,

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Speaker 1: doctor Yashish your Dove.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,

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Speaker 1: can you talk us through the latest number of cases

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Speaker 1: and how things are tracking.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So we had our surveillance update published at the

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Speaker 2: beginning of this month and we had around twenty eight

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Speaker 2: hundred cases back then. As you mentioned, I can tell

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Speaker 2: you that that number has gone up since then. So

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Speaker 2: as of yesterday we have had more than thirty three

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Speaker 2: hundred cases in the territory and we've had unfortunately one

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Speaker 2: more depth. So in total we've had nine deaths so

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Speaker 2: far this year.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, I mean, that's incredibly sad to hear, doctor

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Speaker 1: have in terms of how those numbers compared to previous years,

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Speaker 1: particularly the dates, how do we compare to last year

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Speaker 1: for example?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very important and I should also mention that

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Speaker 2: since then, so since the start of this month. That's

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Speaker 2: the good part that the cases are coming down so

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Speaker 2: compared to what we saw previously last month as well

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Speaker 2: as the month before, the cases seem to be coming down. Now.

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Speaker 2: If we compare the cases overall from last year and

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Speaker 2: also from twenty twenty three, again, unfortunately this year, the

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Speaker 2: number of cases are higher. We had around thirty three

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Speaker 2: hundred cases across the entire year in twenty four and

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Speaker 2: we've already passed that number this year by this time.

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Speaker 2: So yes, definitely it's on the higher side this year.

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Speaker 2: And that's how typically how the flu virus behaves.

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Speaker 1: Do we know what sort of you know, what's caused

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Speaker 1: that increase in numbers. Are we saying a really high

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Speaker 1: volume into state as well, or what's going on?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I mean, I call this virus a very

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Speaker 2: nasty virus. And typically what we've seen across the world

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Speaker 2: is that usually five to ten percent of the community

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Speaker 2: will get this infection annually, so that is consistent. It's

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Speaker 2: just that it changes over the years as well. So

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Speaker 2: a few years like you'll have slightly lower number and

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Speaker 2: then you can have a spike that's just how this

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Speaker 2: virus behaves.

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Speaker 1: What is your advice to territories this morning in terms

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Speaker 1: of how we can protect ourselves, the different initiatives or

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Speaker 1: the different things that we can do to you know,

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Speaker 1: to try our best, I guess not to end up

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Speaker 1: getting influenza.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so vaccination, as I've always said, is the safest

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Speaker 2: means of protection from influenza. And also, like if you

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Speaker 2: get any of the flu symptoms, So flu symptoms can

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Speaker 2: everyone knows that it can vary from like mild symptoms

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Speaker 2: of fever, chills, headache, myalgaea, coughing, and it can have

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Speaker 2: some complications like pneumonia and cardiovascular complications as well. So

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Speaker 2: like if you get any of those symptoms, it's beast

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Speaker 2: to stay away, stay at home, feel isolated, and until

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Speaker 2: the symptoms have resolved, just try not to get in

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Speaker 2: touch with other people. And also the practice of good

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Speaker 2: hand hygiene. And also we also encourage people to wear

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Speaker 2: masks if they're visiting a clinic or they are visiting

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Speaker 2: a hospital. So yeah, those are the usual measures which

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Speaker 2: people do need to take.

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Speaker 1: And doctor you dove in terms of you know, like

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Speaker 1: obviously that's the advice in terms of trying to protect ourselves.

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Speaker 1: But are there some people in the community who are

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Speaker 1: at greater risk potentially of the impact of flu being

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Speaker 1: more harmful to them, I mean our sayors or our

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Speaker 1: young children for example.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yes, the risk of severe disease is more likely

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Speaker 2: in people who are as you said, older, in our

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Speaker 2: young kids, in the indigenous population, and also people who

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Speaker 2: have never been exposed to flu virus before. And also

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Speaker 2: it depends from the type of strain. So flu A

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Speaker 2: and flu B are the most common types. And in

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Speaker 2: those flu B, if you get flu B, that has

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Speaker 2: got higher morbidity and there's more likely to get complications

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Speaker 2: from that. And also people who are immino compromised, people

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Speaker 2: who are OBEs, are pregnant women, and also people who smoke.

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Speaker 2: They're all at risk.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right now in terms of I mean if you

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Speaker 1: do if you get the flu, like what do you

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Speaker 1: need to just stay home? Is that the you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming that is the case, Just die away from

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Speaker 1: other people.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's the best advice people should follow. And again,

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Speaker 2: as I've talked about those who are at risk, they

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Speaker 2: might be in the need of anti virals from their GP.

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Speaker 2: I that's the best protection they have and.

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Speaker 1: I understand as well. There is a tracking survey that

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Speaker 1: the department is asking people to type party and if

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Speaker 1: that is if they do contract influenza, it is for everyone.

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Speaker 2: I do it every week. So it just is a

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Speaker 2: tracker which tells us that who is getting it, who

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Speaker 2: is not getting those symptoms, and also it's just a

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Speaker 2: good tool for us to keep track on the numbers

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Speaker 2: and the coverage.

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Speaker 1: Well, Anie Health's public health physician, doctor Ashishiedov, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate you on this morning. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 1: having a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you