Flu rates in Canada are higher now compared to the same time last year, thanks to an earlier start to the season. According to data from the government of Canada, influenza is trending up, with the percentage of positive tests 10.8 per cent and the activity level marked as “moderate.” Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CTVNews.ca on Friday that flu season in Canada started to emerge around mid-October, before many people had access to the vaccine, which became more widely available by the end of that month. While the start of flu season is hard to predict, he said the hope is that the earlier start will lead to both an earlier peak and end in it, as well. “Australia, for example, their flu season started later and ended later, so that might just frame shift ours,” Bogoch said in a phone interview. He added that while it’s too early to predict how well the vaccines are performing, some early data is “demonstrating a pretty reasonable match between the vaccines and the circulating virus.” Last year, health experts said the flu vaccine was found to be a weak match, compared to previous years. Flu season usually peaks around the time between Christmas and New Year’s and starts to trail off throughout February and March, Bogoch said. Bogoch said the two types of influenza viruses that go around – H3N2, and H1N1 – can “pack a punch.” “When people get sick with the flu, they don’t necessarily know which strain they have,” he said. “They jut know they have the flu and they feel really, really crummy.” However, he said that years when H1N1 was the predominate strain tend to be less severe when looking at the number of hospitalizations and impact on the health-care system. Last year was an H3N2-predominate year, while this year looks like it’s an H1N1 predominate year, he said.
