The rate of hospitalization from influenza in Canada has nearly doubled compared to the previous week of available data, with infections now up almost 30 per cent, Health Canada’s latest figures show.
For the week ending Dec. 13, Canada saw 11,646 new cases of flu being detected, which means 27.7 per cent of all the tests conducted in the country came out positive.
This was an increase of 71 per cent compared to the week before, which saw 6,799 new cases and a positivity rate of 20.2 per cent.
The flu is also landing more Canadians in the hospital, with hospitalizations at 6.2 people per 100,00 of the population — up from 3.6 the week before.
The number of outbreaks reported around Canada soared from 91 in the first week of December to 186 for the week ending Dec. 13, data showed.
During this week, 44 regions across 11 provinces and territories reported influenza activity.
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“All indicators of influenza activity are high and increasing. All regions throughout the country are reporting increasing influenza activity,” Health Canada said on its website.
“Widespread” flu activity was reported in 11 regions across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.
The youngest and oldest Canadians are getting hit the hardest. The highest rate of weekly hospitalizations was in adults aged 65 years and over and children aged four years and younger.
Data showed that 44 per cent of the new cases detected were in those aged 19 years or younger.
The dominant strain being observed in Canada and the United States is the influenza A(H3N2) strain, including a subvariant — A(H3N2) subclade K — the World Health Organization said.
In Ottawa, three children between the ages of five and nine have died from influenza A-related complications, with the city’s health officials urging anyone over the age of six months to get vaccinated.
In November, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario saw eight times more children test positive for influenza compared with the same month last year and double the number of children who needed to be hospitalized with the flu.
“The flu is more than a bad cold,” the hospital, colloquially known as CHEO, said in a statement.
“Children under five are at a higher risk of severe illness from influenza because they have smaller airways, and their immune systems are still developing. Even healthy kids can become seriously ill, and flu spreads quickly in schools and child-care settings.”
In Alberta, hospital emergency rooms are seeing a flood of influenza patients as cases in the province have jumped 70 per cent in a week.
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