Influenza and pneumonia are acute respiratory diseases often grouped together when compiling leading causes of death. They are two distinct diseases: influenza is a viral infection, while pneumonia can be caused by a virus, bacteria or fungi. Influenza is a common cause of pneumonia.

Influenza deaths are highly seasonal and most commonly occur in Australia between the months of May and September. The timing, length and severity of the influenza season varies considerably from year to year. For this reason, influenza deaths have been excluded from the graph below so pneumonia deaths can be tracked separately.

Influenza and pneumonia are a subset of respiratory diseases (J00-J99).

• There were 131 deaths due to influenza and pneumonia recorded during January 2021. All deaths in this category were assigned to pneumonia. 
• The average number of deaths recorded over the same period from 2015 to 2019 was 189.

Influenza

• There has not been a death recorded due to influenza since late July 2020. 

Pneumonia

• The number of deaths due to pneumonia has been below average since late April 2020.
• In January 2021, deaths due to pneumonia were 26.0% below the historical average of 177.