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  • Health department figures reveal flu season hits hundreds of Victorian babies

    Author: AAP

More than 400 babies under 12 months old have been infected with the flu in Victoria in the year to date, health department figures reveal.

More than 400 babies under 12 months old have been infected with the flu in Victoria this year during a "difficult winter" and earlier season.

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There have been 416 reported cases of influenza in babies aged under one in comparison to just 29 for the same time last year, health department figures reveal.

This equates to an increase in cases of more than 1300 per cent.

"This is a difficult winter. There's a heightened risk of the flu," Labor MP Jacinta Allan told reporters on Sunday.

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"The flu season started earlier and it is predicted to go for longer and the best approach we can all take on this, where you can be, people are vaccinated."

The government has also ordered more flu vaccines, she added.

But opposition spokesman David Davis said the data showed the impact on the government's tardiness to get enough vaccines for those who need them

"The state government has been very slow in its response on the flu this year. There was a major break before those flu vaccines were needed before everyone needed them. That slowness is part of the impact," he said.

"The ability of the government to get these vaccines out and to make sure that everybody who needs them has got them was compromised early on."

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