2025-26 the deadliest flu season in recent history, Alberta government data shows

According to provincial data, Alberta is experiencing its most deadly flu season in recent history.

As of February 2026, this flu season has been the deadliest on record, Alberta government data shows.

Of the province’s almost 16,000 confirmed lab cases of influenza A and B, 250 people have died. That number spans the 2025 season beginning on Aug. 24 and data as recent as the end of February.

A respiratory season, the Alberta government says, is recorded from late August of the current year to late August of the following year.

The 2024-2025 season was previously the deadliest, with a confirmed 236 deaths by flu. The 2023-24 season saw 171 flu deaths while the season before that saw 121.

“The strain this year was particularly bad,” Louis Francescutti, an emergency room doctor at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, said on Tuesday. He recalled seeing young, healthy patients with flu symptoms who ended up in intensive care units.

“So I learned to redevelop my great respect for influenza, and just remember that it’s a preventable disease by and large,” he added. “Even if the vaccine strain wasn’t perfectly matched, it still reduces the severity and likelihood of complications for people with co-existing disease.”

There were previous concerns among officials with the vaccine’s exact match to this season’s particular strain as Influenza A, H3N2, ripped through the country.

Available historical data dating back to 2009-10 suggests confirmed flu cases have been on a steady rise in the last decade with the exception of between 2020 and 2021 as COVID-19 dominated hospitals.

Confirmed flu cases this season appear to have peaked in the middle of December and decreased steadily through the months. H3N2 remained the brunt of cases and hospitalizations.

In a statement to CTV News Edmonton, the minister of primary and preventative health services said Alberta was not alone in its large, early flu wave which peaked in December and has “since declined sharply.

“We have now seen four very large flu waves in a row since influenza activity dropped to near zero during the pandemic,” a ministry spokesperson said.

“Total deaths are slightly higher than last season. We hope they won’t increase much further, as total cases and severe outcomes have dropped sharply following the very high peak in late December, with six reported flu deaths in the past four weeks.”

The province also said that current cases are largely Influenza B, known for causing less severe illness and far fewer deaths than Influenza A.

The province estimated that total patients in hospital due to respiratory viruses including the flu, RSV and COVID-19 are down by approximately 75 per cent compared to December’s peak.

Over the worst, lessons to learn

Alberta is over the worst of this year’s flu season, but Francescutti said flu deaths and hospitalization trends rising over the past four years indicate that both the province and Albertans themselves have lessons to learn.

“There were a lot of people that kind of forgot to get immunized for the flu. They may have done it for COVID-19, but a lot of them forgot to do it for the flu, then the province could have probably done a better job trying to get Albertans immunized,” he said.

“And there was vaccine hesitancy, now there’s doubt about whether the vaccine works … The vaccine doesn’t make you sick, so Albertans have to rediscover a little bit of trust in public health.”

Just 20 per cent of Albertans received a flu shot so far this season, according to provincial data, but the province said that’s not unusual.

“We are 18 weeks into the current influenza immunization campaign and are slightly ahead of last year’s pace,” the ministry’s statement read.

This time last year, vaccination rates were slightly lower than this season. Week 18 data from Feb. 15, 2025, showed 1,016,312 vaccinations at that point. Week 18 data from Feb. 21, 2026, shows 1,019,967 vaccinations to date.

Last season, government data says about 21 per cent of Albertans received flu shots.

The province added that vaccination rates are down across Canada, not just Alberta, and that rates were low before COVID-19.

“During the 2009-10 H1N1 season, an exceptional immunization effort resulted in overall vaccination under 40 per cent,” the statement noted. “This context does not minimize the importance of vaccination, but demonstrates that uptake has not approached ideal levels for the past two decades.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Lampa