Flu season comes early for Calgary zone again
The annual flu season has hit Calgary sooner than the rest of the province. The latest information available from Alberta Health Services indicates there were 596 labconfirmed cases of Influenza A in the health authority ’s Calgary zone between late August and Nov. 10.
That compares to 129 cases in the Edmonton region, 93 in the north zone of the province, 50 in the central zone and 33 in the south.
Dr. David Strong, medical health officer with AHS, said officials aren’t seeing anything unusual so far, but that the numbers show the flu arrived here before other parts of Alberta.
“The same thing happened last year,” he said. “Our outbreak started before most of the rest of the province.”
While it’s inevitable Calgary will get a flu season every year, the earlier arrival is linked to people travelling to the southern hemisphere and bringing the virus back from other regions, Strong indicated.
“Perhaps more people from Calgary are travelling for business reasons to places where there are outbreaks,” he said.
Strong added it’s too early to know what this flu season will look like. However, so far the predominant strain is H1N1, as opposed to last year, when the most prevalent strain was H3N2.
“The strains we’re seeing are in the vaccine, so we’re really encouraging people to get immunized,” he stressed.
So far this season, 830,376 doses of flu vaccine have been administered across Alberta, including 349,972 doses in Calgary.
As with any respiratory virus, officials recommend that those who do get sick cough or sneeze into their sleeve and wash their hands regularly to reduce transmission.
“People leave the virus on door handles and on surfaces, so washing your hands frequently will help prevent getting sick,” Strong said.
“And then if you do get sick ... you should stay home from work or school, until you’re feeling better, so you don’t spread it to your classmates or your workmates.”
Typically, flu season lasts for about eight to 12 weeks.