Number of flu cases higher than in previous 2 years: IHA

Typically, influenza picks up in the last week of December and in the first few weeks of January. IHA’s Pam De Bruin

The Okanagan Saturday

More people have gotten the flu in the Interior this season than in the previous two years, and those numbers are likely to continue increasing, says Interior Health.

“To date, we have had 84 labconfirmed cases of influenza in the Interior,” said Pam De Bruin, manager of communicable diseases and immunization programs at IH.

“In the Central Okanagan, there have been 30 lab-confirmed cases this season, which is 36 per cent of the total for Interior Health.”

The number of lab-confirmed cases of the flu has been rising over the past three weeks in particular, she said.

“Overall, there were 29 cases this past week and 14 in the prior week.”

These numbers are higher than in the previous two years, and they do not include people who did not seek medical attention, said De Bruin.

This upward trend of flu cases is expected to continue into the new year.

“Typically, influenza picks up in the last week of December and in the first few weeks of January,” said De Bruin. “We’re only entering the time when typically influenza activity picks up.”

The good news is this year’s flu vaccine is a good match for the strain going around, which has predominantly been H3N2, said De Bruin.

Many pharmacies have already run out of their supply of flu shots, including London Drugs in West Kelowna, which ran out of its first batch of doses in the middle of November, said staff pharmacist Brian Smith.

His pharmacy received another batch of doses, which was also used up.

“We do have some of the privately funded ones people have to pay for, but we’re out of the publicly-funded ones,” he said.

Interior Health initially ordered 210,000 doses of the vaccine, which was 10,000 fewer doses than the year before.

“Interior Health places their vaccine order in February, and it’s based on the uptake that was seen in the previous year,” said De Bruin.

“Initially we had ordered 210,000 doses, but the demand for vaccine was good this year, so we ordered another 7,700, which we received at the end of November.”

IH is not planning on ordering any more doses, but will be redistributing doses depending on where the need is, said De Bruin.

“We've got continued demand for a vaccine in some communities, and public health has been distributing any remaining vaccines we can find to communities with low supply.”

With flu season expected to get worse over the next few weeks, it is not too late to get the flu shot, said De Bruin.

“We encourage flu shots to the end of the season, but the earlier you get it the better,” she said. “It takes up to two weeks to get the optimal response from the vaccine.”

To avoid the flu this holiday season, Smith advises keeping a safe distance from other people and taking precautionary measures at home.

“Replacing hand towels or using paper towels when washing hands is a good idea, because viruses can remain alive for several hours on fabrics in the household,” said Smith. “Also making sure to sanitize your house, including door handles, TV remotes, phones and keyboards, because germs can live up to 24 hours from the time they've been transferred onto a surface.”