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RSV tops most notified respiratory virus
Cases are surpassing flu and COVID, with a GP expert saying lack of awareness is a driver as ‘people still get their head around it’.
RSV has accounted for almost half of all notifications of the three main respiratory viruses during the first half of 2026.
For the first time in five years, influenza and COVID-19 cases have been overtaken by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) this season, as a peak immunisation advocacy group releases its ‘state of play’.
Latest figures collated for the Immunisation Foundation of Australia (IFA) mid-winter report card show that 83,678 cases of RSV have been recorded so far this year, followed by 51,655 COVID cases, and 49,785 flu cases.
It marks the first time RSV cases have been highest since mid-year infectious respiratory disease notifications began being reported nationally in 2021.
This winter, RSV is the most notified respiratory virus, making up 45% of notifications of these three main respiratory viruses during the first half of 2026 – a 25% increase compared to the same time last year.
Since the start of winter, RSV notifications have grown by more than 37,000 – equivalent to an estimated almost 900 per day – with children younger than five years accounting for 46% of confirmed RSV cases.
The IFA is predicting more than 127,000 cases of RSV by the end of this winter.
GP and Immunisation Coalition Chair Dr Rodney Pearce told newsGP the lack of awareness of the virus, coupled with the out-of-pocket costs for those outside the eligible cohort to receive the free vaccine, remain key drivers for soaring cases.
‘The story we have regularly is the cost of RSV is putting people off,’ he said.
‘People are also often saying they’re having too many injections, and asking, “Do I need another one?” and “What is RSV?”
‘And because we can’t treat RSV because we don’t have any antivirals for it, we don’t talk about it ... but when we have an intervention [the vaccine], we can talk about this now, we can monitor it.
‘But people still ask, “I didn’t know about this 10 years ago, where did it come from? Is it new like COVID? Can I trust this vaccine?”
‘We’ve been trying to get this vaccine for 20 years and now we’ve got one safe enough to use during pregnancy, safe enough to give kids ... but people don’t want to commit to paying for it.’
Outside of the eligibility cohort who can receive the RSV vaccine for free under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), Dr Pearce is seeing ‘some, but not many’ who are choosing to pay for the vaccination.
‘I’m getting a lot of people asking, but when they hear about the $300 cost, particularly for people in their early 70s, they’ll say, “oh, I’ll wait a couple of years”,’ he said.
Eligibility to receive free immunisation against RSV includes for:
- pregnant women at 28–36 weeks of pregnancy
- people aged 75 years and older
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 60 years and older
- people with medical risk factors for severe RSV disease aged 60 years and older
- eligible infants up to eight months (if the mother wasn’t vaccinated) and certain at-risk infants and children through state-funded programs.
However, the IFA report card highlights a ‘significant immunisation gap, with 722,530 people aged 75 and over having received the free RSV vaccine, compared to 1.76 million who have had their flu shot.
The IFA says this means around one million over 75s are missing out on protection from the highly contagious virus.
Additionally, around 64% of this older cohort were unaware the RSV and influenza vaccines can be administered simultaneously, which may be contributing to lower RSV vaccination uptake.
Conversely, 119,000 infants have been protected so far in 2026, with numbers continuing to rise. The infant RSV immunisation program has led to
reduced hospital admissions for newborns by almost half in its first year, and more than 360,000 babies protected since the national program
began in early 2025.
Dr Pearce points to the example of chicken pox before it was a notifiable disease once a vaccine became available. Since being added to the NIP in 2005, chicken pox-related hospitalisations and deaths have
reduced significantly.
Before that, ‘we couldn’t do anything about it,’ he says, then once it became a national notifiable disease, cases began to drop.
The same applies to the availability of the RSV vaccine.
‘Our first big win is that we know the vaccines work and make a difference,’ Dr Pearce said.
‘We are seeing the virus dropping off in children ... and a great example we’ve got is severe RSV in infants dropping.
‘What’s really exciting is to look at the success of the childhood programs that mean children’s hospitals aren’t full of those infections.’
With his practice this week receiving less RSV vaccines than normal, Dr Pearce adds that some vaccine shortages can impact coverage.
‘It’s one of the anomalies in Australia where the states dish it out, but we’re getting less, so it looks like for some reasons the states are rationing it,’ he said.
‘But we’re running low on these so there is a demand.’
He reiterates GPs’
central role in raising better awareness of RSV and vaccine eligibility.
‘RSV is moving from a disease that we couldn’t do anything about, didn’t have any options other than to monitor then treat the secondary complications, to a disease that we now know is around, that people are testing for, and there is more awareness,’ he said.
‘But people are still getting their head around it – both healthcare professionals and patients.’
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National Immunisation Program older people respiratory syncytial virus respiratory viruses RSV vaccination vaccination coverage
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