Infectious disease experts say the current mainstream strain will be influenza A H1N1
The federal public health agency announced Friday that influenza season has officially begun in Canada.
“At the national level, influenza activity has exceeded seasonal norms, marking the start of influenza season,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in its weekly Full Watch report posted online.
The percentage of positive influenza tests has exceeded 5% for two consecutive weeks.
As of Nov. 25, 7.5 per cent of people tested for influenza across Canada had tested positive.
Dr. Alison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, said the number of cases is increasing.
“If you’re planning on getting a flu shot, now is the perfect time,” she said in an interview.
“The upcoming flu season suggests we’re going to see a lot of flu in late December and early January,” McGeer said, noting that the flu shot takes about two weeks to prime people’s immune systems. he pointed out.
“At times like that, you want to go out and do things with your friends, but as we all know, the flu can make that time very miserable.”
Not all states and territories are yet reporting a 5% positivity rate. For example, as of Nov. 25, the province’s infection rate was 2.8 per cent, according to Public Health Ontario’s latest influenza surveillance report.
But Ontario and other provinces will soon catch up and that rate will rise, McGeer said.
The most prevalent strain currently is influenza A H1N1, which is well suited to current vaccines, he said.
Because many adults have some degree of resistance to the H1N1 influenza strain, “it tends to cause a lot of illness in children, especially children who are not vaccinated,” McGeer said.
He added that during H1N1 influenza season, “emergency departments and pediatric departments are under even more pressure.”
McGeer said while it’s important for people to get the flu vaccine, he’s more concerned about the level of coronavirus infections circulating this year.
The province’s test positivity rate for COVID-19 was 20 per cent, according to Friday’s surveillance report from Ontario Public Health.
McGeer said positive tests, as well as wastewater monitoring and hospitalizations, show Canada is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases.
“Just because we stopped talking about people being hospitalized with COVID-19 doesn’t mean people aren’t being hospitalized with COVID-19,” she said.
“At this rate, more people will be hospitalized with the new coronavirus and more people will die from the new coronavirus this year than last year,” McGeer said. He pointed out that the low vaccination rate in Japan is worrying.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2023.
Nicole Ireland, Canadian Press
