The 14-year-old record of lab-confirmed influenza cases in a week in Alberta fell last week.
The record was set during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009.
For the week ending Dec. 9, there were 1,800 lab-confirmed influenza cases in the province, surpassing the previous record of 1,778 set in the week of Oct. 25, 2009.
Representing nearly nine in 10 of the cases, influenza A (H1N1) is driving this epidemic as we approach the end of the calendar year.
With Christmas get-togethers just days away, there are some tried and true ways to prevent giving or receiving influenza as a gift.
At the top of Dr. Daniel Gregson’s list is getting vaccinated.
“That’s the most important thing,” the University of Calgary infectious diseases assistant professor said. “That’s going to really reduce your risk of getting infections by about half, your risk of getting in the hospital by about half.”
Gregson also recommended using the days ahead of a dinner or other get-together to prevent bringing an unwanted guest.
“You might think about other things we used, non-pharmaceutical things to prevent infection during that week before your Christmas function,” he said. “Avoiding large crowds, going out in large crowds with masks on. Those are all things you can do to reduce your risk over the holiday seasons.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada says the use of respirators, like NIOSH-certified N95 or certified KN95, can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, guidance that matches with what aerosol scientists say about preventing airborne diseases.
“The other thing really is that if you’re sick, don’t go,” Gregson said.
Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta Hospital, said there were lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that can be used in a season of heightened influenza levels.
“If you’re about to go into a social situation in a smaller, enclosed space with a whole bunch of people and some of them are quite elderly or have medical compromise, you might want to rethink the space and the time for that, or spread out the visits with smaller groups over a larger time, or at least pay some attention to ventilation,” she said.
Like Gregson, Saxinger said someone starting to feel like they’re coming down with something should take a rain check on the visit.
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“If you are going to be visiting elderly people in long term care or something, because that’s when you do that, masking remains important and people often forget hand-washing actually really does help too,” she said.
While the very old and the very young tend to have weaker immune systems that are more susceptible to severe outcomes from infections, Saxinger said the H1N1 family of influenza viruses is known to produce worse for younger populations.
“I just checked the hospitalized flu case breakdown by age and indeed it has flipped. So last year, the highest group was 65-plus, and this year the highest group is 18 to 65 years old,” she said.
She said the hospital capacity situation this year is much different than 2009, with hospitals around Alberta already under high stress.
“Hospitalization numbers tend to peak a little bit later (than the peak of case counts),” she said. “People who have a complicated course may end up staying in hospital for a while, and that could really create some issues when we’re already running kind of like 110 per cent in many of our hospitals.
“Making more space is really challenging. And so it is a bit of a worry, I’ll be honest.”
Walk-ups available
One pharmacist told Global News there’s so much supply of influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations that many of his colleagues are able to help people on a walk-in basis.
Vishal Sukhadaya, pharmacist and owner of a Medicine Shoppe in Lethbridge, likened vaccinations to a first line of defence.
“The vaccines actually train our immune cells how to fight with actual viruses. If we don’t have any training, we won’t be able to fight with the viruses accordingly,” he said.
“This year, surprisingly, the flu vaccination rate is substantially low compared to last year. So we are seeing many flu cases and we have actually a few patients who are dealing with severe complications.
“I would encourage everyone to just get the vaccination done at their closest pharmacy.”
Saxinger said she expects there to be a higher than normal population of Albertans who are vulnerable to influenza, perhaps because of a loss of community-level immunity.
“I’m not sure that the influenza vaccine campaign really got a lot of traction this year. It didn’t seem super visible,” the infectious diseases specialist said.
According to the province’s dashboard, only 22.1 per cent of Albertans have received an influenza shot, making it the second-lowest coverage rate since 2009.
In the 2009-10 influenza season (which runs from autumn to autumn), 36 per cent of Albertans were immunized by the end of May 2010.
That was following the World Health Organization’s declaration of the swine flu pandemic in 2009. The province’s report reviewing that pandemic said record levels of coverage in many populations, including high-risk and Indigenous populations, were achieved due to public health officials delivering vastly more influenza shots using tactics like mass immunization clinics.
It was only in the 2020-21 flu season that Alberta broke the 2009-10 high-water mark of vaccinations.
Saxinger was quick to note that people cannot get sick with influenza from the vaccine.
“There’s no actual virus involved in the vaccine that you’re given,” she said. “It’s just sub-units.”
Saxinger noted that Albertans over 65 with a medical condition or who are immunocompromised can be eligible for prescriptions to treat an influenza or COVID infection.
“In both cases the treatment is best if started early. And so if people are beginning to become ill and they know that there’s been a horrible fever, cough illness that they’ve been exposed to, that’s probably influenza and they should consider getting tested and treated because there is useful treatment that can help keep people out of trouble.”
According the province’s dashboard, there have been 1,097 hospitalizations, 132 intensive care admissions and 34 deaths due to influenza this influenza season. The youngest death was an Albertan in their 30s, which was recorded this month.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
