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Speaker 1: Here to talk a little bit more about the fact

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Speaker 1: that the NT Health has recorded an increase in the

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Speaker 1: number of influenza cases in the Northern Territory in recent weeks.

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Speaker 1: Since the beginning of January, so there's been about one

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen cases as I understand it confirmed in

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Speaker 1: the NT, mostly in the Greater Darwin and Top End region.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation is doctor Peter Marky,

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Speaker 1: the head of Surveillance for the Center for Disease Control.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, doctor Marky.

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Speaker 2: Good o Katie. How are you going?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really good. Great to have you on the show. Peter,

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Speaker 1: A spike in cases of influenza in recent weeks. Do

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Speaker 1: we have any idea what's caused at well.

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Speaker 2: It's interesting we often get a in the Top end.

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Speaker 2: We often get a flu season during the wet season,

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Speaker 2: but usually it's later than this. We often get rise

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Speaker 2: at this sort of end of February March, so this

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Speaker 2: year it's a bit earlier than expected. So we have

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Speaker 2: noticed the increase. It actually started sort of last couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks of December over in the western side, and

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Speaker 2: it's sort of moved over into Darwin and now into

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Speaker 2: East Darnham and we're now up to one hundred and

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Speaker 2: sixty five cases for the year so far. So we've

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Speaker 2: had an increase in the last the last couple of days,

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Speaker 2: and so that is a lot more than we expect.

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Speaker 2: And of course, you know these are just the positive cases,

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Speaker 2: so you know, not everyone gets tested, so yes, the

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Speaker 2: iceberg if you like, So we suspect that there is

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Speaker 2: more more flu across the top end.

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Speaker 1: Goodness may so one hundred and sixty five cases, that's

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Speaker 1: jumped fairly significantly over the last week or so.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we're getting about we're getting probably twenty or so

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Speaker 2: cases a day and it's a little bit hard to

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Speaker 2: predict how it's going to go because we did think

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Speaker 2: it was starting to taper, but in the last couple

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Speaker 2: of days it's gone back up again. So we have

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Speaker 2: to certainly be on the lookout. And that's why we

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Speaker 2: were sort of warning everyone about the flu.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Peter, have people been becoming quite unwell?

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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

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Speaker 2: serious as flu A. But there's still been hospital admissions

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Speaker 2: and we haven't had any deaths so far, thank goodness,

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Speaker 2: but there's still been some people admitted to hospital, so

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Speaker 2: people can still get very sick with it. So it's

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Speaker 2: important that people do if they do get the flu.

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Speaker 2: When we like to encourage people of course to you know,

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Speaker 2: most importantly to stay at home and wash your hands.

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Speaker 2: Wash your hands prevent prevents you're getting the flu and

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Speaker 2: spreading the flu. So good idea to wash your hands

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Speaker 2: and wear a mask if you go out if you've

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Speaker 2: got symptoms, but stay at home if you can. And

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Speaker 2: also there is treatment for the flu. So it's important

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Speaker 2: to if you you know, contact your GP if you're

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Speaker 2: if you if you're feeling really unwell with it, and

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Speaker 2: or if you have risk factors of more severe disease,

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Speaker 2: particularly if you've got you know, other things wrong with

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Speaker 2: your with your lungs or any other chronic respiratory infections

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Speaker 2: or any chronic disease. It's a goot idea to contact

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Speaker 2: your GP early in the disease and sometimes you can

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Speaker 2: arrange to get some treatment.

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Speaker 1: And Peter, how do you know it's influenza and not

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Speaker 1: and you know, like it's not just a cold or

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Speaker 1: you know, not COVID or something else. Is it a

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Speaker 1: matter of actually presenting to your GP.

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Speaker 2: Yes, if you want to be certain, it is. Really

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Speaker 2: it's you know, you can say one thing or the other,

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Speaker 2: like some people say loss of smell for COVID et cetera.

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Speaker 2: But you know they all overlap, and so it's really

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Speaker 2: hard to be certain about what you've got without getting

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Speaker 2: without getting tested. So so, and not that everybody, of

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Speaker 2: course has to get tested, but certainly if you're feeling

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Speaker 2: crooked enough and you're thinking, well, I I want to

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Speaker 2: talk to a doctor about this because I want to

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Speaker 2: get some treatment, or you have the risk factors for

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Speaker 2: severe COVID or whatever, then it's important to contact your

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Speaker 2: GP and arrange to have some testing done. Because of

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Speaker 2: course there's treatment for or COVID as well as as

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Speaker 2: well as flu, so it's important to find out what

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Speaker 2: you've got.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now, how did the case numbers compare to previous months?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's a bit difficult to say that. It's because

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Speaker 2: the test, the way people get tested is it changes

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Speaker 2: over time. Like we had a you know, our peak

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Speaker 2: of last year. People might remember in May and June

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Speaker 2: we had a really big peak of flu cases and

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Speaker 2: the positive people was up. I think we had sort

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Speaker 2: of you know, last year, thousands you know, were getting

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Speaker 2: eight hundred a week and that's because everybody was getting

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Speaker 2: tested because you know, they were worried they had COVID.

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Speaker 2: So there's so everyone was getting tested and now sort

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Speaker 2: of testing has sort of waned off a bit. So

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Speaker 2: it's a little bit hard to compare between seasons, if

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Speaker 2: you like. But certainly we know that in the west

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Speaker 2: of you know, the southwest, the road communities that it

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Speaker 2: really has been you know strong, they had big, big

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Speaker 2: tack rates in the community and the large proportion of

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Speaker 2: people got the flu. So of course not everyone was tested,

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Speaker 2: so it's important to be on the lookout and you know,

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Speaker 2: seek advice if you're feeling unwell or if you have

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Speaker 2: those risk factors, which I think have been widely circulated

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Speaker 2: and people are aware.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Also vaccine, it's worth mentioning that the flu vaccine, there

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Speaker 2: is still some available from last year. The virus looks

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Speaker 2: as though it's still you know, will be you know,

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Speaker 2: the vaccine will still work against the circulating B strain

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Speaker 2: that's going around. So if people haven't been vaccinated and

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Speaker 2: they can get hold of some of the vaccine. It

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Speaker 2: is still it is still available in some of some

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Speaker 2: of the chemists. Be course, the new vaccine will be

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Speaker 2: out in April, so.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Marky, by the sounds of it, we can probably

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Speaker 1: expect that there's going to be some, you know, some

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Speaker 1: more cases out there. And I guess if people aren't

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Speaker 1: sort of getting tested, it's hard to know. But the

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Speaker 1: best thing to do is to try and take yourself.

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Speaker 1: If you get crooks, stay.

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Speaker 2: Home, that's right, and yeah, stay home. And if you

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Speaker 2: have to go out, of course, wear a mask. That's

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Speaker 2: the most and socially distanced. And I think people just

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Speaker 2: from looking around, I think some people are often you know,

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Speaker 2: they're still of some people wearing mask outside and or

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Speaker 2: in the shops. And that's a good thing and a

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Speaker 2: sensible thing. And I think, you know, that sort of behavior,

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Speaker 2: mask wearing, etc. Is a good thing to keep in mind.

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, sort of going on into the future,

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Speaker 2: I think it's a good thing not to spread the

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Speaker 2: viruses around once you get them.

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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

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Speaker 1: up with you. Thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, it was a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Thank you