Flu season hits hard
Winter influenza in Taupō is ‘horrendous’ and creating record levels of demand for doctors, ambulance and hospital services.
By Chris Marshall
Almost half of Taupō-nui-a-Tia College’s 1200 students were away at some point last week for health reasons.
Taupō Health Centre emailed its patients this week telling them to phone in before coming to the clinic if they had flu symptoms.
General Practitioner Louise Faulls of Great Lake Medical says her practice is also following Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners guidance in urging people to stay home if they are unwell.
College president Dr Luke Bradford notes on the organisation’s website that the most helpful thing New Zealanders can do costs nothing.
“Stay home when you are sick. Influenza spreads before you feel your worst, and one person who soldiers on at work or school can take out a whole team, class or whānau.
“Most people will recover from the flu at home with rest and fluids. But if you are worried, or you are in a higher-risk group, don’t hesitate to contact your general practice or Healthline early for advice.”
Taupō schools and businesses are also feeling the effects through absences.
“Winter illness is hitting pretty hard,” says Ben Claxon Taupō-nui-a-Tia College principal, “which makes it difficult for schools to keep their overall attendance rates high. Staff illnesses do put pressure on our relief system too.”
Just under half of the school’s nearly 1200 students had been marked absent for health reasons at some point last week, he says.
Taupō massage therapist Toni Sullivan says the virus she seems to have caught, conflated with some seasonal hayfever and children bringing home colds from school, just won’t go away.
“It’s not shifting, normally I’m over something in a week but this has been going on four weeks. And a lot of other people I know are saying the same thing.”
Ayman Al-Ibousi, director and pharmacist of Mainstreet Group, says the few sicknesses in June and late July seem to have ramped up in August.
“All ages – kids, parents, adults and the elderly as well. And it just didn't really hit the patients. It's also hit my staff as well… And this goes across pharmacies in New Zealand because I'm in a group chat with 60 other pharmacy owners and they've all said the same thing that influenza A hit their staff hard and they've got a second surge, like a huge spike of influenza.”
Because of the spike, the Ministry of Health last week was encouraging everyone to get vaccinated, he says.
“Over the weekend, we sold out of our testing kits for influenza A, B, COVID, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) which is another respiratory infection… and we've ordered another 250 units that just came through this morning, but we've sold over 50 units of that.”
He estimates his new staff members would usually get sick within the first month of the flu season (May to October).
“But even for my staff that's been around, even me, we're still catching something. So, it's just one of those things really where we have to make sure everybody's vaccinated, make sure everybody's on lots of immune supplements, vitamin C, zinc and ginger as well, which I'm a big fan of and turmeric and all that.”
Vaccination is definitely the best front-line defence, Al-Ibousi says.
“It's recommended from six months and above. So, from six months infants can have the flu vaccine... But getting the flu jab is the best protection you can get, and then you’ve got to look after your immune system because, you know, there are lots of other viruses out there from simple colds to RSV, to general chest infection, really.”
He also encourages anyone immunocompromised such as the elderly or those on immune medication, or cancer treatment, to always wear a mask.
“Because anyone can just cough and you can catch something. This morning I just spoke on the phone to a family in which all had caught the flu… it's just one of those things.”
Vaccines:
For 2026, Influvac Tetra is the standard funded flu vaccine in NZ, free for everyone aged 65 and over, pregnant people, and people under 65 with certain eligible health conditions. If you need to pay, it costs between $25 and $45.
Fluad, an enhanced/adjuvanted influenza vaccine designed to produce a stronger immune response in older adults, is available for people aged 50+, but is not government funded, so patients pay privately.
The vaccine isn’t effective immediately — the immune response builds following vaccination, so it’s best to be vaccinated before influenza is widely circulating.
Ministry of Health information
Adults are most likely to be contagious in the first three to five days of illness. Young children can be contagious for more than five days.
Around 500 people die from the flu each year.