This year’s flu season is particularly severe and it will only get worse before it gets better, public health officials warn.
Laboratory-confirmed flu cases have been rising steadily in both the United States and Canada since last fall. Influenza A (H3N2) has emerged as the predominant virus strain and it is known to cause more severe illness than other strains, particularly in young children and the elderly.
Making matters worse, this year’s predominant H3N2 strain is not the one that was included in the current flu vaccine.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Atlanta, said Friday that this year’s season “is shaping up to be a bad one,” particularly for patients aged 65 and older.
“There is a lot of it, and there is more to come,” he warned in a teleconference with reporters.
Frieden is concerned that doctors are under-prescribing antiviral medications, such as Tamiflu. Antivirals can prevent more severe disease in sick patients and those who are at higher risk of developing complications such as pneumonia.
Data from the CDC suggests that doctors are only prescribing antivirals to one-fifth of patients that could benefit from them. The CDC sent an alert to U.S. doctors on Friday, encouraging them to increase antiviral prescriptions, despite the fact that flu season is already half over.
“Antiviral flu medicines save lives,” Frieden said.
Hospitalizations for flu in the U.S. continue to rise and has hit nearly 5,500 since Oct. 1, and the number of pediatric deaths from flu has reached 26, Frieden said.
The number of laboratory confirmed influenza cases also continues to rise in Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada said late Friday afternoon.
According to the agency’s latest FluWatch report, the majority of lab-confirmed cases continue to be in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. However, British Columbia and Manitoba saw increased flu activity over those weeks.
In the week ending Jan. 3, the number of positive influenza tests in Canada increased to 5,550, from 3,723 the week before.
The predominant virus in Canada continues to be influenza A, with the vast majority being the H3N2 strain.
Hospitalizations among both children and senior citizens increased in the week ending Dec. 27 and decreased the week ending Jan. 3. The death toll in Canada from flu now stands at 69, including one child under age five.
At Ontario’s Lakeridge Health Centre, CEO Lisa Shiozaki estimates that at least 40 per cent of patients arriving at the hospital have the flu or flu-like symptoms.
They are also suffering more severe disease than doctors have noticed in patients in recent years, she told CTV News. More patients are developing complications, such as pneumonia, and the facility’s critical care beds are full.
“What we are seeing is an increase in how sick the patients are,” she said.
Typically, flu season ramps up around this time and peaks in March. However, flu cases have been steadily rising over several weeks.
“I have been in health care for 25-plus years and I think this is the worst holiday season for sickness,” she said. “And they are so sick, the worst I have seen.”
With a report from CTV’s medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
