RSV and Flu season: WA health experts warn vaccination rates lagging behind rest of country ahead of winter

WA health experts have sounded the alarm with the State’s flu and RSV vaccination rates lagging behind the rest of the country in the lead up to winter. Perth Children’s Hospital infectious diseases physician Chris Blyth has urged parents to get their children vaccinated against the potentially deadly respiratory diseases RSV and influenza as more cases are expected in the coming weeks. Between April 28 and May 4, the number of influenza cases increased by 45 per cent on the previous week to 308 cases while there were 82 people with RSV in the same week — more than the same time last year. The influx of cases comes as just 2.8 per cent of children aged six months to five years old were vaccinated against the flu in WA, as of May 4. Only 1.8 per cent of people aged between five and 15 had the flu jab while 3.2 per cent of people aged 15-50 were vaccinated. Dr Blyth said the flu vaccination rate in WA was “low and poor.” “We’re not doing as well as we usually do in influenza vaccine uptake and in Western Australia, we’re not doing as well as the rest of the country, so now is the time to act,” he said. “We often see, particularly for influenza in Western Australia, we’re a couple of weeks behind the east coast so we’ve got a wonderful window right now to make sure that all people who are recommended to have a flu vaccine can access it. “Influenza causes large numbers of hospitalisations every year in children and in adults, and importantly we know particularly school children are those who spread it in the community so there is a great opportunity right now to make sure that we protect ourselves.” Dr Blyth said the RSV immunisation uptake had also been slower this year compared to the rollout last year, which saw 80 per cent of newborns immunised in 2024. This free immunisation program slashed the number of RSV hospital admissions by more than half with over 500 families avoiding hospital stays last winter. “We’ve halved the number of babies being admitted with RSV last year. I expect we can do exactly the same this year but we need parents to act,” Dr Blyth said. First-time mum Catherine Jepp brought her seven-month-old Claire to Perth Children’s Hospital on Friday for her first flu jab. Ms Jepp said protecting her daughter against the flu and RSV was a no-brainer. “We’re here for the flu vaccination and we had the RSV vaccination last month, and the reason we’re getting her vaccinated is it’s her first winter,” she said. “We just wanted to do whatever we could to prevent her getting sick through the winter months and especially in the first year of life so it was an easy decision for us because we wanted to be able to protect her. “If the alternative is being in hospital then that’s much more disruptive to the routine and potentially quite scary, and she would need many more invasive things done to her if she was admitted, so the vaccine is a much easier option.” She told parents that may be hesitant that a split second of pain was a “very small trade off for protecting kids from infection or coming into hospital.” Perth Children’s Hospital has a walk-in clinic for the free flu vaccine otherwise it is available at general practices and pharmacies across the State. Pregnant women between 28 and 36 weeks of pregnancy are eligible for the RSV immunisation. Infants and children born between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, whose mothers did not receive the immunisation, are also eligible for the RSV immunisation.