Infectious disease experts and physicians have warned about an intense flu season, pointing to concerns about lower vaccine uptake and a ‘mismatched’ vaccine that may offer less protection against the dominant circulating strain.Tara Walton/The Canadian Press
An Ottawa hospital has seen an eightfold increase in the number of children testing positive for influenza, as doctors and health care workers across the country brace for what is expected to be one of the worst flu seasons in years.
Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario on Wednesday said 145 patients tested positive for the flu in November compared with just 17 positive tests during the same month last year. Hospitalizations have doubled to 12.
Tammy DeGiovanni, senior vice-president of clinical services at CHEO, said most patients have not been vaccinated against the flu. She is urging all people, but especially children, to get immunized while the virus continues to gain ground across Canada.
She said these are early days for the viral season, which is expected to peak around late December and into January.
“If people do take this call to action seriously, we can bend this curve,” said Dr. DeGiovanni.
Infectious disease experts and physicians on the front lines have warned about an aggressive flu season, pointing to concerns about lower vaccine uptake and a “mismatched” vaccine that may offer less protection against the dominant circulating strain.
While most people who are infected with the flu recover, children under five, people with immune-compromising conditions and adults over 65 are at great risk of severe complications, including death. Even healthy kids can become seriously ill, the CHEO warned.
Canada’s flu season officially began in mid-November. The latest national data, for the week ending Nov. 22, show a positivity rate of 8.1 per cent. So far this season, roughly 1,200 people have been hospitalized with the flu, 38 of whom required intensive care. Fourteen deaths have been recorded.
Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, said they are seeing many emergency department visits for the flu and hospitalizations are beginning to increase.
He’s worried many people haven’t got their annual shot yet, especially because this year’s flu season started earlier than in the past.
“When you ask people why they did not get vaccinated for influenza in Canada, the most common answers are because they don’t think the disease is severe enough. They think it’s just a common winter virus,” said Dr. Papenburg.
“The don’t realize to what degree it’s a leading cause of hospitalization and death in Canada, especially in our at-risk groups.”
Another issue, he said, is that people are hearing that this year’s shot may not offer full protection. The dominant subtype, so far this season, has been H3N2, which hasn’t had a significant presence in the past number of years.
Ask a doctor: My child has a fever – should I be worried?
Dr. Papenburg stressed that people should still get vaccinated and will be offered some level of protection against the circulating strains, even if it’s not a perfect match.
“The bottom line is that it is roughly 50 per cent effective at preventing severe outcomes like emergency department visits, hospitalizations, ICU admission and death,” he said, referencing a recent McMaster University study. “Reducing your risk by half is nothing to sneeze at.”
SickKids hospital in Toronto is also seeing flu season pick up steam. Upton Allen, head of its division of infectious disease, said they are prepared with extra staff for an anticipated surge of cases heading into the holidays. But he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
The best protection against the flu is getting vaccinated, to protect yourself and the people around you, he said.
“We really want to minimize the spike that we typically see each year just after the holidays,” he said. “There is still time for people to get their flu shots.”