Every year, Ireland’s laboratories brace themselves for a surge in respiratory testing as the cold and flu season takes hold. Between October and May, influenza and other respiratory pathogens exert significant pressure on hospital and laboratory testing capacity, stretching turnaround times and supply chains to their limits.
But what if we could see what’s coming? Each year, the southern hemisphere offers an early glimpse of what may lie ahead for Europe’s winter. In 2025, Australia’s flu season has already provided important signals that Irish laboratories would be wise to heed.
Australia’s 2025 Flu Season: A Warning from the South
Australia’s 2025 influenza season has been described as “widespread and severe”, with health services reporting a steep rise in both confirmed cases and hospitalisations.
According to Australian public health data, over 70,000 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases were recorded in the first four months of 2025, an increase of nearly 60 % compared with 2024.¹
By mid-winter (June–July), influenza was the leading cause of severe respiratory infection across multiple states. Hospitals reported ambulance ramping, staff absenteeism, and mounting pressure on intensive care units.²
For Europe, and Ireland in particular, these dynamics matter. The influenza strains circulating in Australia often mirror those that will dominate in the northern hemisphere six months later. While not a perfect predictor, the southern season provides a valuable early indicator of potential strain mix, vaccine performance, and epidemic intensity.
Implications for Ireland: What to Expect This Winter
Ireland’s influenza season typically runs from October to May, with peak activity between December and February.³ However, Australia’s early surge suggests that Ireland may see cases climbing earlier than usual, perhaps even by late autumn.
Building Laboratory Resilience Before the Surge
1. Review and Reinforce Inventory
The first step in readiness is ensuring that critical pre-analytical consumables — such as swabs and transport media, are available in sufficient volume. Demand for respiratory testing can surge by 150 % or more at peak season, and supply chain delays can create avoidable bottlenecks.
Confirm stock levels of essential diagnostic products and establish a buffer inventory that can withstand a sudden increase in testing volume.
2. Ensure Safety and Sample Integrity with Copan eNAT®
eNAT® is designed for the collection, transport, and preservation of microbial and human nucleic acids for downstream amplification techniques such as PCR. The medium rapidly inactivates pathogens, enhancing biosafety for laboratory staff while maintaining RNA and DNA integrity for accurate detection.
Key benefits:
- Immediate inactivation improves handler safety and reduces biohazard risk.
- Provides a high-quality, unbiased nucleic acid yield, supporting reliable molecular results.
- Ready-to-use format streamlines workflow and minimises handling steps.
In high-volume flu testing environments, eNAT® helps laboratories maintain consistent performance while reducing biosafety concerns — a crucial advantage when throughput is high and staff are under pressure.
3. Preserve Viral Viability with Copan UTM®
The Universal Transport Medium (UTM®) system is a well-established standard for virus, Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, and Ureaplasma specimen collection and transport.
UTM® ensures that samples remain stable and viable during transport, maintaining pathogen integrity for accurate molecular or culture-based detection.
Key benefits:
- Versatile medium compatible with multiple pathogen types.
- Maintains specimen integrity for a range of downstream assays.
- Reduces the risk of invalid results from degraded samples.
As respiratory panels expand to include multiple targets, UTM® offers the flexibility to meet both routine and outbreak-specific diagnostic demands.
4. Optimise Sample Collection with Copan FLOQSwabs®
High-quality specimen collection underpins every accurate result. FLOQSwabs® revolutionised this step with their patented flocked fibre technology, perpendicular nylon fibres that improve sample uptake and elution efficiency.
Key benefits:
- Superior sample recovery, ensuring more viral particles reach the assay.
- Available in a wide range of sizes and tip designs to suit different anatomical sites.
- Provides consistent performance across clinical users and collection environments.
In an influenza surge, when every test result counts, FLOQSwabs® help laboratories maximise diagnostic yield and reduce repeat sampling.
Flu season 2025 will test laboratory capacity, agility, and supply readiness across Ireland. While the southern hemisphere’s data provide a cautionary tale, they also offer an opportunity: the chance to prepare before the pressure mounts.
With Copan’s range of pre-analytical devices — eNAT®, UTM®, and FLOQSwabs® — laboratories can strengthen the entire diagnostic chain, from collection to analysis, ensuring safety, consistency, and speed when demand is highest.
Now is the time to prepare.
Secure your Copan flu season essentials and ensure your laboratory is ready for whatever winter brings. Get in touch with us below
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¹ Australian Government Department of Health data, 2025.
² ABC News, July 2025: Flu cases and hospitalisations rising in South Australia.
³ Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), Ireland, 2024–2025 influenza surveillance.
