Professor Paddy Phillips urges South Australians to take flu jab MORE than 230 cases of influenza have been diagnosed in South Australia this year - four times more than the same time last year. It is more than three times the 72 cases confirmed in SA for the whole of 2004 and 2 1/2 times more than the 88 cases confirmed in 2006. Experts are urging all South Australians over six months old to book in for a flu jab to prevent further spread of the potentially deadly disease. SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips said the 2013 vaccine would become widely available from March 15. "As we see every year, influenza can be a very serious illness," he said, adding: "We recommend a flu shot each year because the strains change each year." He said the figures - about 30 cases per week diagnosed for the past eight weeks - were higher than in previous years. "But they're nothing like the winter peak when we get hundreds of cases per week, not tens," Prof Phillips said. Of the 233 cases reported so far, 131 were Influenza A, 99 Infleunza B and three were H1N1, or swine flu. This time last year, 55 cases had been reported. The vaccine covers variants of each of the strains expected to be prevalent this year. SA GP and founding member of the Influenza Specialist Group, Dr Rodney Pearce, said the number of flu cases fluctuated each year. "We speculate - rather than know - why there is lots of the flu around," he said. However, Dr Pearce said South Australians could expect the figures to rise into winter. "We would expect to start seeing more cases of the flu from about this time of year," he warned. Some private GP clinics would already have some of the vaccine available. The cases come as a University of Adelaide study reveals 95 per cent of SA parents believe that vaccines are safe, despite the spread of misinformation about their safety. The study, by PhD student Adriana Parella, surveyed 469 South Australian parents. "Until now, little has been known about what Australian parents really think about vaccine safety and how they respond to a perceived adverse event," Ms Parella said.