If you’ve noticed a surprising number of Aussies sneezing and sniffing this summer, the culprit may be a new influenza strain dubbed “Super-K”.

While the symptoms of this flu are similar to previous variants, it spreads quickly and has led to an usually high number of cases over the warmer months.

“If there’s enough of it around you’re going to feel absolutely dreadful, and those who are vulnerable are going to end up in hospital or worse, so it is worth actually getting it diagnosed,” GP Ginni Mansberg told Seven’s Sunrise this week.

A recently published report from the Australian Centre for Disease Control noted that influenza cases nationally increased from late October, and had remained considerably higher than at the same time in previous years.

The report said the main driver of the increase was likely subclade K –AKA Super-K ­– a mutation of the ­H3N2 influenza A virus which has also been linked with early flu season onset and high case numbers in many Northern Hemisphere countries.

“Current epidemiological data do not indicate increased severity of illness associated with subclade K,” it said.

“However, subclade K’s rapid spread has the potential to put increased pressure on Australian health care services over the summer and into the 2026 influenza season.”

Australia was one of the first places to identify the new subclade (or sub-group), which has now been found in more than 30 countries.

Already this year, more than 2500 Australians have reportedly been infected by it.

One challenge with Super-K is that it has developed new mutations and appears to be less responsive to the 2025 influenza vaccine compared with the strains circulating earlier.

Nonetheless, experts say vaccination still provides important protection against severe illness from the flu, and the flu shot for the 2026 southern hemisphere season is already being updated.

“Even when influenza viruses drift, vaccines continue to reduce severe disease complications and death,” said Harry Stannard, a medical scientist and PhD candidate at the Doherty Institute.

“Respiratory viruses evolve quickly, but our ability to track and respond to them is also advancing.”

Flu shots are still your best protection. Photo: Getty

There were more than half a million reported cases of influenza in Australia in 2025, which was also the first year that deaths from the flu surpassed those from Covid-19 since the pandemic peaked.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1238 people died due to influenza in the first 10 months of 2025 ­­– similar to the number in the same period during the record flu season of 2017. The 2024 total for the same period was just over 1000.

These figures, and the spread of Super-K, comes amid concern about falling vaccination rates in Australia, with Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Michael Wright describing the ABS data as a “wake-up call”.

“There’s the notion of ‘vaccine fatigue’, and different types of misinformation, but we should focus on what we can do to ensure as many people as possible are as well protected as possible,” Wright recently told the association’ newsGP website.

Aside from getting a shot, one of the best ways to avoid catching and spreading the flu is by maintaining good hygiene, especially by regularly and thoroughly washing your hands.

And if you do have symptoms ­– a runny nose, cough, fever, headache, sore throat, tiredness, joint pain ­– stay home and keep your distance from others.

This could also be the time to dig out that box of Covid face masks lurking in the back of the bathroom cabinet.