Flu bug charting a course that is similar to last season
The flu bug hasn’t gone dormant, but Saskatchewan isn’t experiencing a “pandemic” either.
That’s according to Dr. Denise Werker, the province’s deputy chief medical health officer, who stood in for Dr. Saqib Shahab to provide reporters with an update Thursday.
Shahab, the province’s top medical official, had apparently fallen ill and decided to take a bit of his own medicine by staying home, as he often advises others to do.
“In general, this year appears to be typical of one where influenza Type A — H3N2 — dominates,” Werker said, noting that particular flu disproportionally affects seniors and young children.
Since the beginning of September, the province has recorded slightly more than 1,000 cases of the flu. There have been 33 outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
Intensive care units have admitted 13 people with the virus, and three people have died from it.
“There has been a little bit of misinformation in the media,” Werker said, before attempting to set the record straight.
Insights ought not to be extrapolated from year-to-date flu data.
On average, the 10- to 12-week flu season generally ends in March, she said. But the start, peak and end dates can shift drastically some years, rendering year-todate data comparisons useless.
“I just want to provide some reassurance that what we’re seeing with respect to influenza, at least in Canada, is not unusual, in general.”
A small quirk, though, is a higher than normal activity of the influenza Type B virus, for this point in the so-called season. That virus is prone to affecting school-aged children the most.
Normally one type picks up after the other has peaked, she said, but that’s not the case, this year.
That said, the real “crap shoot” is not knowing with the influenza virus is how it’s going to change over time.
“For the H1N1, which was a pandemic virus, there was a shift. It changed sufficiently that nobody within a certain age group had immunity.”
No such shift has yet occurred in this year’s flu, she said.
Flu shots are still available, she said, however, it is too early to determine the shot’s effectiveness this season.
As of Dec. 30, around 270,000 doses of this year’s flu vaccine were given. Werker couldn’t say whether Shahab was among the recipients.