Flu Virus 'Runs Riot' in Ireland: Respiratory Illness Update

Analysis: It's the year the flu virus has 'run riot' in Ireland, but it isn't the only respiratory virus on the scene You’re not imagining it, the flu season this year was "definitely worse," says Professor Christine Loscher, expert in immunology at Dublin City University. It was due to a "perfect storm" of poor vaccine uptake early in the season and a surprise variant that we weren’t prepared for. This meant the virus was able to "run riot in a population that wasn't as vaccinated as it could have been. It was just a more virulent virus." Every year, we get flu data from the southern hemisphere and build our vaccine based on that, but a new variant arose at the end of the season there. This meant that the vaccine "probably wasn’t as powerful as it could have been", Loscher says, but "still protected against severity". The result was that more people got the flu overall, people who weren’t vaccinated got a really bad flu, and those who were vaccinated got milder doses and might not even have realised what they had was the flu, she explains. The published flu numbers are from people who report to a GP or hospital. "The case numbers that we see aren't really a reflection of the case numbers", explains Loscher. "They are a reflection of severe case numbers that make it into a into the health care system essentially so there's lots of other people out there with flu or a mild dose that's not being reported." We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, flu outbreak has peaked but caution advised But flu isn't the only respiratory virus on the scene. "RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is as much present looking at the numbers. Even though we associate RSV with children, anyone can get it and actually the distribution of RSV in the population is right across age groups. So there might be a lot of people with RSV at the moment," she says. RSV figures peaked coming up to Christmas and dipped after Christmas, but went up again around the middle of January. Covid numbers also peaked at Christmas, dipped after the festive period and went up again. Meanwhile, the flu numbers have started to go down, having peaked at Christmas, dropped and surged again in early January. "That little surge that happened early in January, probably because of the mixing that happened over Christmas, is now on a downward trend. RSV went up after Christmas and it's stayed up." This means there’s likely a mix of RSV, flu and Covid going around. "So there's three respiratory viruses in circulation at the moment". "The thing to highlight is people are still dying from respiratory viruses," says Loscher. This winter has seen 67 deaths from flu so far, according to HPSC reports, but also 65 Covid deaths and six with RSV. We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, should we introduce RSV and shingles vaccines for older people? "With Covid and flu we have vaccinations and we have a type of immunisation with RSV that we only really give to premature babies and babies that are born during the winter season where RSV is high. It's not a vaccine, it's actually antibodies, so straight away it gives them immediate protection. So that's a really good programme that's had a massive impact on RSV in babies since it was introduced in 2024. But the deaths this winter were in older adults with RSV, so it's still a dangerous respiratory virus for lots of vulnerable groups to get." Should we be testing more for the flu, with antigen tests at home? "I always think testing is good," says Loscher. "We campaigned long and hard for everyone to accept the fact that tests were useful [during the pandemic]." But the awareness we’ve gained around how viruses are spread is equally as important. "As a country, one thing that's come out of Covid is that it's more acceptable for people to stay at home when they have symptoms of a respiratory illness. "Back in the day, it was take two paracetamol and off you go to work. The idea that somebody wouldn't come to work because they had a bit of a cold or that they might infect somebody else was not the done thing, it was kind of frowned upon. So I think that testing is really useful but I think that behaviour change in people, that means that they are taking responsibility for minimising infecting somebody else, is really powerful." We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences From RTÉ News, HSE did not offer enhanced flu vaccine to over 65s How long does a flu vaccine actually last? Loscher says there’s no evidence to suggest that a flu jab wouldn't last the entire season and this is why we don’t get a flu booster. "The only reason we get vaccinated every year against flu is because we pick the dominant strains and we immunise and give protection against those. It's not because your vaccine doesn't last any more than a year." When you’re immunised with a vaccine, your body will have a really powerful immune response that gives you two things: antibodies in your system and a group of T cells that fight the disease. "We do know that the antibody level wanes over time, and that might be over a period of six months, and we know that the T cell population that you have, that’s really good at killing virally infected cells, is a really consistent thing in the background. In a situation where your antibody level isn’t as good, your T cells coming in and being able to kill virally infected cells is what really prevents the severity if you do get an infection." So the bottom line is that if you get vaccinated at the start of the season in October, you will still have good antibody levels in December. Even if they wane later in the flu season, your T cell response will give you protection against severity, Loscher explains. We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor Show, your guide to vaccine season How could we reduce flu cases going forward? "The simplest, strongest tool that we have in our box is prevention", believes Loscher. That’s why barriers to vaccination like cost and accessibility really matter and we have to make to make it easy and affordable for people. "As many children every year are hospitalised as older adults," she says. But uptake of the flu vaccine in children remains static around 20 to 25% every year. "It’s really, really low and it has not gotten any better because I think there's not enough education around how severe flu and hospitalisation can be in children. In the last couple of years it’s been about 2000 kids every year hospitalised with flu." A strong schools programme, where you make it possible for every parent to consent to a child being immunised in school, is key. "Parents don't need to make an appointment, they don't need to take time off work, they don't need it as another job to do. The flu vaccine for children is nasal, no needles, no issue, it's very simple." READ: Is it a cold or flu? How to tell winter symptoms apart When it comes to cost, the flu vaccine remains free for children and adults over 65, but what about the rest of the population? "We’re in a cost of living crisis. You've got this whole other population outside of children and older adults, which are between 18 and 65, and the first barrier they have is cost," says Loscher, who recommends introducing pop up vaccinations across universities as well . "We made the flu vaccine free one of the years during Covid and everybody got it. I do think cost is an issue. Some people would say 'well, we only have a certain budget in the healthcare system', but there’s just no comparison between the cost of a vaccination versus the cost of hospitalising somebody. "We don't spend enough on infection control and prevention in this country. If we focus on the over 65s and we don't focus on the rest of the population, all we're doing is increasing the level of exposure all the over 65s have. Even though you're vaccinated, the more you're exposed, the higher your risk. I’m not saying we’re wasting our time, but we have to focus on vaccinating the rest of the population to really get the benefits of focusing on vaccinating our vulnerable population." Follow RTÉ Brainstorm on WhatsApp and Instagram for more stories and updates