Thursday 7 July 2022 01:27 AM Australia under siege from multiple viruses. Expert says lockdowns have ... trends now
Australia is facing a devastating 'multi-demic' assault from a vicious cocktail of viruses attacking the nation, a top medical expert has warned.
The country's defences against a range of different diseases have dropped after Covid lockdowns left Aussies' immune systems untested by common viruses.
Now the rapid spread of killer bugs is being fuelled by cold, damp winter conditions, combined with staff returning to offices and commuting on packed trains and buses.
And that's on top of the new, more infectious Omicron variant BA.5 which is sweeping through the population.
Australia is facing a devastating multi-demic assault from a vicious cocktail of viruses attacking the nation, a top medical expert has warned
'We're facing a multi-demic of respiratory viruses,' Sydney University infectious disease expert Professor Robert Booy told the Courier-Mail.
'There's three or four of them causing trouble - influenza, RSV, para-influenza, adenovirus, HMPV... there are a lot.
'Because were locked down for two years, the level of natural immunity dropped off against flu and Covid, so we have a lot of cases and deaths due to Omicron and the opening of a society with less natural immunity.
'If you want to spread an infection, you open up society.'
NSW alone is facing a massive outbreak of RSV which can kill infants, with numbers skyrocketing tenfold from 355 to 3775 cases a week in under a month.
Businesses across the east coast have also been decimated by staff falling ill as the range of viruses wreak havoc and spread like wildfire.
Bosses have reported a spike in absenteeism - and work-from-homeism - among staff.
Cold, damp winter conditions while staff return to offices and commute on packed trains and buses is fuelling the rapid spread of the killer bugs
Epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett told Daily Mail Australia flu jabs and Covid boosters are essential to stopping the spread, along with the return of widespread mask-wearing.
'In the eastern states of Australia we knew we would have a challenge with the flu,' the Deakin University professor said.
'Not only have people not had it the last two years, it also hasn't been front of mind for vaccination.
'We haven't had
