The Star: June 06, 2019
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>June</strong> 6 <strong>2019</strong><br />
4<br />
NEWS<br />
Current vaccine ‘a<br />
very good match’<br />
•From page 1<br />
“In part that has caused a few<br />
problems for patients in that<br />
quite a lot of patients weren’t<br />
going to get their flu vaccination<br />
until <strong>June</strong>, anticipating<br />
that the flu<br />
will arrive in July,”<br />
said Dr Schroeder.<br />
In New Zealand,<br />
flu-related illnesses<br />
cause about 400<br />
deaths a year and<br />
account for 45 per<br />
cent of sick days<br />
each winter.<br />
However, Canterbury<br />
Employers’<br />
Chamber of Commerce chief<br />
executive Leeann Watson said<br />
employers are not yet seeing<br />
anything over and above business<br />
as usual.<br />
“Anecdotally we have seen a<br />
few more people coming down<br />
with colds and coughs, which<br />
is pretty much expected at this<br />
time of the year.<br />
“What we have seen more<br />
of over the past few years is<br />
employers providing and encouraging<br />
their team to get flu<br />
vaccinations . . . at the end of the<br />
day it is in everyone’s best interest<br />
to keep well,” she said.<br />
Latest figures from Australia<br />
show there have been nearly<br />
59,000 confirmed cases of the<br />
flu so far this year, compared<br />
to about 14,000 for the same<br />
period last year and close to 100<br />
deaths have been<br />
recorded so far.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a<br />
stark warning<br />
in the weekend<br />
when promising<br />
20-year-old<br />
league player<br />
Zae Wallace died<br />
from an infection<br />
caused by the flu<br />
on Saturday in<br />
Auckland.<br />
He had been in an induced<br />
coma in Auckland City Hospital<br />
since April and is one of three<br />
others around the country who<br />
have died from the flu so far this<br />
year, including a 12-year-old and<br />
a 62-year-old.<br />
So far more than 1<strong>06</strong>,000<br />
people in Canterbury have been<br />
vaccinated against the flu, about<br />
19 per cent of the population.<br />
Dr Schroeder said<br />
“encouraging” results were<br />
coming out of Australian studies<br />
to show the current vaccine<br />
is proving to be a “very good<br />
match” for the strains of flu that<br />
are being detected.<br />
news online at www.star.kiwi<br />
VICTORIOUS: Gillian Sheard pictured above at the crossing last year collected 500<br />
signatures in a bid to get it upgraded.<br />
New crossing brings tears of joy<br />
•From page 1<br />
It was not removed and<br />
$15,000 was spent on its upgrade,<br />
it was painted bright red.<br />
“When Deon [Swiggs]<br />
mentioned that it was going to<br />
happen, it really excited me. But<br />
I thought I should wait until I<br />
actually see it,” she said.<br />
“I sort of thought it was still<br />
going to be black and white one<br />
still . . . but I think its great.”<br />
When she was taken from her<br />
hospice care to see the crossing<br />
for the first time, she cried with<br />
happiness.<br />
Locally, it is known as “Gillian’s<br />
crossing” – but Ms Sheard<br />
insists that she didn’t lobby for<br />
herself.<br />
“This is the people’s crossing,”<br />
she said.<br />
Her passion is the Richmond<br />
community.<br />
Ms Sheard said she has spent<br />
the last few years advocating for<br />
the area and working as a neighbourhood<br />
support officer.<br />
City councillor Deon Swiggs<br />
helped lobby internally at the city<br />
council for the crossing upgrade<br />
after staff recommended it be<br />
removed.<br />
“I really wanted to get it done<br />
for her . . . it wasn’t on budget<br />
and we also got most of the road<br />
resealed,” he said.<br />
“She wanted to do something<br />
for her community and she has.”<br />
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