Professor Paul Griffin

So that is certainly a consideration.

Of course, the main reason we want everyone to get their flu vaccine each and every year is because the flu that is circulating in people does cause devastating consequences in terms of productivity and illness and deaths and GP visits and impact on our healthcare system and a whole host of other things that could be minimized if we were able to get our flu vaccination rate up.

So it's just the right thing to do and really want more people to do it.

We're very lucky to have such robust public health systems, both in human health and in animal health.

And obviously, we've got a Centre for Disease Control that coordinates a lot of activity.

We've got lots of other good departments that are all working together to make sure we are prepared.

And my understanding is the government have invested over $110 million already, recognising this as an imminent threat and one that is now on our shores and making sure we are prepared.

So

At the very first step, it's that surveillance activities that we're hearing a lot about now with detection of probably an isolated migratory bird or two that have been infected.

And now enacting those plans to exactly understand what it looks like, if there are any other birds affected, which looks less likely at the moment, and then minimising that spread.

So making sure there are measures underway to protect particularly our commercial poultry industry,

making sure we minimize interaction with wild birds that could be carrying this virus and make sure that if we do we minimize the spread amongst those sorts of birds and so there are measures in place to to make sure people house and look after those birds safely and to be on the lookout for any birds if it was to be introduced so we could minimize our onward spread and the impact that it does have there so all that takes a big coordinated effort and lots of resourcing which has been applied and so i think we're in a really good position but certainly not one to get complacent in just yet we need to make sure that all that is very successful and

and very carefully monitored.

Really, just to say that it's continuing.

We are hearing less about that at the moment, but that doesn't mean that that has gone away as a risk.

And once again, a

no significant risk to people in this country.

We've never seen a case of Ebola.

We don't anticipate that we will, but we do need to be prepared just in case.

And we've seen a few instances where it's something that's been considered and we've enacted plans to safely investigate and look after those people.