With Australian vaccination rates the lowest since the pandemic, flu cases have sored past 400,000 to set a new record.
Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) President Dr Michael Wright said GPs were sounding the alarm with more than 410,000 lab-confirmed cases of influenza reported so far in 2025.
Dr Wright said the case numbers had already outstripped the previous all-time high of 365,000, recorded last year.
“This is not a record we want to be breaking, we must boost vaccination rates and reverse this trend,” he said.
“Getting vaccinated not only help keeps yourself as safe as possible, but also your friends and family members. This should act as a wake-up call to all patients across Australia.”
Dr Wright said while influenza case numbers were soaring, flu vaccination rates had plateaued or were trending in the opposite direction, stating only 25.7 percent of children aged six months to five years were vaccinated in 2025, the lowest since 2021, while rates for patients over the age of 65 had also slipped, with the 60.5 percent rate the lowest since 2020.
“Governments can take concrete steps to improve our vaccination figures,” he said.
“Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia have committed to introducing free childhood intranasal vaccinations ahead of the 2026 flu season and we would like to see other states and territories do the same. Needle-free vaccinations make such a difference.
“The vaccination rate for young children, who are at increased risk of contracting a severe flu infection, has fallen to just one in four and they’re also coming down with influenza more often than any other patient group.
“Many kids are fearful of needles, which can stall vaccination efforts – particularly as two thirds of parents say the distress they feel when thinking about vaccinating their child acts as a barrier.”
Key influenza stats:
- 2025 is the worst year on record for influenza adjusted for population, with around 1.5 percent of people experiencing a notifiable flu infection, or 1525 lab-confirmed cases per 100,000 people – a 10.8 percent increase on the 2024 record,
- More than 44,500 infections were among children under five, a disproportionately high 10.9 percent of all cases, while more than one in three cases were recorded among children younger than 15.
- Cases continue to climb, with over 13,000 lab-confirmed cases in the first two weeks of October, almost double the 7201 figures in October 2024, according to the National the Notifiable Disease Surveillance System.
