What winter illnesses are spreading this year, and are we sicker than usual? - The Front Page

Hospital admissions due to respiratory illnesses such as influenza have been on the rise in recent weeks.

As hospitals experience a spike in people being treated for respiratory illnesses, a leading GP has warned that influenza should not be underestimated.

Winter illnesses are currently spreading throughout the country, with ESR data showing that Auckland hospitals recently saw the biggest spike in hospital admissions caused by severe acute respiratory illnesses in a single week since 2015.

The Herald has reported on several people who have died suddenly from illnesses such as influenza, most recently Wellington nurse Maria-Packe Leonard, whose husband remains in ICU.

To discuss the state of these illnesses, The Front Page, the Herald’s daily news podcast, spoke with University of Otago epidemiologist Dr Lucy Telfar-Barnard and chairman of General Practice New Zealand, Dr Bryan Betty.

Betty said that people often confuse influenza with the common cold, but the flu is far more severe. He said one of the key differences between the two is the speed of onset.

“Often with a cold, it’ll come on gradually over a couple of days, you’ll get this slight sore throat, a bit of a cough, a runny nose, those sort of cluster of symptoms start to happen.

“Often what people describe with the influenza is they’ll be okay in the morning. In the afternoon, very suddenly, over a few hours, they’ll get a very severe, often muscle ache, headache, dry cough and temperature and start to feel miserable.”

He said that he often sees patients who say they don’t need the flu vaccine because they’ve never had it.

“Often they haven’t actually experienced a full-blown influenza infection. And once you’ve had it, you don’t want it again. It can go on for seven to 14 days. It can really lay you low down in bed. You can’t do much. You feel miserable. It’s really is full-on, so it is not something you really want to catch.”

Telfar-Barnard said it may seem that people are sicker than usual this year, but the period of closed borders during 2020 and 2021 may have made New Zealanders mistake that insular situation for a new normal.

“It is normal to have peaks in the winter and respiratory illness, but we have seen a particularly sharp rise. Rather than kind of creeping up slowly, it’s kind of come on all at once and that, that may be part of the shock that we’re experiencing.”

She said the closed borders meant there were several years where New Zealanders didn’t build up immunity, but people’s immune systems are not generally weaker because of it.

“Normally when, if you catch flu, if you maybe get a mild dose or a severe dose, then that gives you some immunity for the next few years and then you become a bit more susceptible again.

“So none of us had flu for those two years and so that susceptibility built up, but it’s, but our immune systems are still functioning just as well as they were before.”

Listen to the full episode to the full episode for more on what illnesses are spreading this winter, how severe this spike is putting on our health system, and what we can do to try and stay healthy.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode is presented by Georgina Campbell, a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.