With the influenza virus hitting over 4,000 people in Western Australia this year, the Health Department has warned that the high flu rates should serve as a wake-up call for people who have not taken the vaccination against the virus.

The Health Department’s advice to people to get flu vaccinations comes at a time when the reports of the virus have touched the highest level, ever since a pandemic was declared in 2009; and it is highly likely that the virus may continue to remain active for many more months.

In a call to the Western Australians to get vaccinated against the influenza virus, Kim Snowball – the Director General of Health – said that the high number of flu cases reported in the region this year was apparently an upshot of the fact that there has been a notable drop in vaccination rates.

Terming the high flu rates this year as a “wake-up call” for Western Australia as a whole, Snowball said that flu can be prevented if people get vaccinated, and that timely vaccinations can actually lead to “immunity for the wider community.”

Further adding vaccination is “the best means we can have to prevent illness,” and that it is in the people’s hands to increase the flu vaccination rate, Snowball said: "Influenza has an impact particularly to those who are vulnerable in our community and that's why we appeal particularly with people who have pre-existing conditions who would be most vulnerable to influenza to be vaccinated.”