KATIE FLANAGAN: They actually saw similar things in Europe last year and in America, and so they’re already aware of all these issues. There is now a big push towards getting better vaccines, particularly for the elderly because they are more vulnerable and the ones that are more likely to die. There’s a high dose influenza vaccine that’s been available in America for a little while now and that is four times the strength of the vaccine we normally use, and definitely gives better antibody responses and a bit more protection against influenza. There is interest in bringing it into Australia and I think they may happen in due course.

There are other formulations being looked at as well and other types of vaccines that might be better. People are also wondering if they might be able to develop a vaccine that, even if there’s antigenic drift occurring throughout the season, it can still protect against all strains - sort of a pan-influenza vaccination. There are a lot of attempts being made to develop those kinds of vaccines.

RELATED: Q&A with Dr Katie Flanagan, part one

CD: Do you know when the data on this year's flu season will be available?

KF: There’ll be a lot more information also about vaccine coverage and exactly what happened this year, but it takes a while to get all that data together. And to really understand vaccine efficacy is not easy either, because it’s all based on reported cases and hospital admissions, but of course, there are many, many more cases in the community that go unreported, so we miss a lot of information as well that we never get to hear about. We still haven’t absolutely pinpointed why it was so bad this year.

CD: You mentioned the rates of Tasmanian children getting vaccinated is low - is that on the national scale?

KF: I don’t know that we’re any lower than anywhere else - I don’t have the data for elsewhere in Australia. But I know there is no major drive to vaccinate children annually against seasonal influenza, and the people that are funded on the national immunisation program are those over 65, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, because we know they are more susceptible to influenza, but it’s not funded for healthy adults and it’s not funded for children of school age, and yet they will often be the ones giving it to the older people.

CD: Is there anything else people can do alongside vaccination to increase their immunity - healthy food or exercise, for example?

KF: General good health is always going to be a factor because we know if you’ve got poor health, chronic diseases, immunosuppression, all of those things make you more susceptible. Pregnant women as well are more susceptible. Vaccination is recommended for them and the uptake is quite good. Good hygiene is also really important - good hand hygiene, cough hygiene - you pass it through droplets coughing around people, so if you’re sick and you’ve got a nasty flu like illness, don’t go to work, don’t go coughing all over people.

CD: What's the vaccination uptake like in Tasmania?

KF: It's generally pretty good along the recommendations of the national immunisation program. I don’t think GPs have necessarily been pushing it for healthy children and healthy adults as an option. You would have to pay for it if you did want to get it, but it’s not terribly expensive at pharmacies. So I think it’s due to the fact that people just aren’t educated and not realising that it would be really useful to vaccinate their children, prevent the influenza, prevent it spreading in communities because it is very infectious.

CD: Is there a threat of a recurrence this year?

KF: I think the flu season is now abating and we’re getting many less cases now. We had whole wards closed with influenza earlier this year - that’s all settled down now and we don’t have many cases at all in the hospital. So I don’t think there’s a threat of there being another surge. I think it’s over for this year, but there will always be sporadic cases. We had a lot of patients this year on intensive care with influenza for weeks and weeks, and some young, fit healthy people were severely unwell with multi-organ failure on our intensive care.