The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, urges any of the 2.7 million Australians over 65 who have not already been vaccinated to protect themselves from potentially life-threatening winter illness with their annual free influenza shots.

This comes with new figures stating, that influenza-like illnesses presenting to general practitioners rose in May and June.

The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System records show that during the period January 1 to July 18 2008, there were 1237 cases of laboratory-confirmed influenza notified in Australia.

In a similar period -January 1, 2007 to June 30, 2007 - there were 912 notified cases of influenza-like illnesses.

Of January 1 to July 18, 2008 cases, 47 per cent were in Queensland, 21 per cent in NSW and 12 per cent in Western Australia.

The highest rates of influenza-positive cases have been in individuals aged over 65.

“As the ‘flu season generally lasts until late August or September, many people can still be protected by having the vaccine now,” Mrs Elliot said.

“Infection control in Australia is a big task and we can never wipe out infectious diseases, but we must always look at ways to minimise risk,” she added.

As part of its preparations for the influenza season, the Australian Government has delivered almost 2.6 million influenza vaccine doses to states and territories for use in the 2008 Government-funded influenza immunisation program for people over 65, costing the Government a staggering $28 million for the 2008 program.

Over the past five years, influenza and pneumonia were responsible for 2.5 per cent of all deaths in Australia, and in 2006 resulted in 2725 deaths - making these conditions together the 12th highest cause of death.