{"id":324058,"date":"2025-12-04T03:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T03:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324058\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T03:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T03:58:07","slug":"doctors-urge-people-to-get-flu-vaccine-as-ottawa-hospital-sees-a-surge-in-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324058\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors urge people to get flu vaccine as Ottawa hospital sees a surge in cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

An Ottawa<\/a> 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<\/a> in years.<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s Children\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She said these are early days for the viral season, which is expected to peak around late December and into January. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf people do take this call to action seriously, we can bend this curve,\u201d said Dr. DeGiovanni.<\/p>\n

Explainer: With respiratory virus season under way, here\u2019s what to know about RSV vaccines and protection<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u201cmismatched\u201d vaccine<\/a> that may offer less protection against the dominant circulating strain.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital, said they are seeing many emergency department visits for the flu and hospitalizations are beginning to increase.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s worried many people haven\u2019t got their annual shot yet, especially because this year\u2019s flu season started earlier than in the past. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you ask people why they did not get vaccinated for influenza in Canada, the most common answers are because they don\u2019t think the disease is severe enough. They think it\u2019s just a common winter virus,\u201d said Dr. Papenburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe don\u2019t realize to what degree it\u2019s a leading cause of hospitalization and death in Canada, especially in our at-risk groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another issue, he said, is that people are hearing that this year\u2019s shot may not offer full protection<\/a>. The dominant subtype, so far this season, has been H3N2, which hasn\u2019t had a significant presence in the past number of years.<\/p>\n

Ask a doctor: My child has a fever \u2013 should I be worried?<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Papenburg stressed that people should still get vaccinated and will be offered some level of protection against the circulating strains, even if it\u2019s not a perfect match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that it is roughly 50 per cent effective at preventing severe outcomes like emergency department visits, hospitalizations, ICU admission and death,\u201d he said, referencing a recent McMaster University study<\/a>. \u201cReducing your risk by half is nothing to sneeze at.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t come to that.<\/p>\n

The best protection against the flu is getting vaccinated, to protect yourself and the people around you, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to minimize the spike that we typically see each year just after the holidays,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is still time for people to get their flu shots.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Infectious disease experts and physicians have warned about an intense flu season, pointing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-324058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}