Cowra’s Bilyara Retirement Hostel has been forced into lockdown until further notice.
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Management at Bilyara were forced to lockdown the facility on Thursday after a suspected outbreak of influenza.
The lockdown impacts 82 residents at Bilyara, including 14 in the facility’s Ganya Cottage dementia unit.
Nine Bilyara residents are effected by the outbreak at this stage with pathology completed on three.
Bilyara chief executive office Ray Harris said it was the first occasion the facility had been closed due to influenza.
Mr Harris said staff were currently awaiting confirmation of influenza from the pathology tests.
Along with residents at the facility Mr Harris said the lockdown impacts 120 staff.
Two staff are off sick at this stage.
A spike in emergency admissions for influenza has signalled that the flu season is gathering pace, with nearly 2000 confirmed cases last week in NSW.
This year's predominant strain - influenza A (H3N2) - is particularly menacing to the very young and the elderly, with 22 aged care centre outbreaks last week alone.
There have been 79 outbreaks in residential aged care facilities this year, affecting 942 residents and staff, and causing 45 deaths.
NSW Health's Vicky Sheppeard said this was double the number of outbreaks compared to last year, when the bulk of cases were caused by type B influenza.
"Last year when we had type B and other years when we've had H1N1 the elderly haven't been as susceptible," Dr Sheppeard said.
"It's interesting when swine flu came out in 2009 we hardly had any outbreaks in elderly people and it's thought that because it was quite similar to the 1918 strain that they had developed immunity early in life and maintained that."
The latest influenza report shows 2341 people cases of influenza were confirmed across NSW last week, causing 141 presentations to the emergency department.
This was an increase on the previous week, but within the usual range for this time of year.
Although emergency departments start to see an increase in flu admissions at the beginning of winter, it usually snowballs as more people become infected and peaks towards the end of winter.