ER visits rise as flu season hits B.C. kids hard

As flu season ramps up, children are proving to be much more susceptible to this year’s dominant strain.

For the last several weeks, there’s been a growing share of children showing up at British Columbia’s emergency departments with respiratory symptoms—and a flu variant is playing a role.

A quarter of all pediatric ER visits were for cough or fever during the first week of December, according to B.C. Centre for Disease Control data, and by the second week it had grown to 29 per cent.

Only nine per cent of adults attended for those symptoms.

“That’s similar to where we were around this time last year, but I think we’re particularly aware of how quickly some of the indicators are rising in children,” said Dr. Jennifer Vines, medical director for the Public Health Response unit at the BCCDC.

She said while only a small number of suspected cases are actually tested, there are more people testing positive for the flu virus in our province.

“We’ve seen that number go up and up over the last few weeks, probably most dramatically among children,” said Vines, noting that children are a little more likely to become sicker with the H3N2 variant seen this season.

That strain has changed slightly as it has spread through North America since this year’s flu shot when into production, but public health and infectious disease experts across the country are urging people to get immunized if they haven’t already since it still offers some protection for that strain, as well as others contained in the dose.

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“Will a seatbelt guarantee to save your life? No. Will it reduce the chance that you get badly injured or die? Yes. Vaccines are the same way,” explained Dr. Fahad Razak, an internal medicine physician in Toronto.

Resting and drinking plenty of fluids are long-time medical suggestions, but Dr. Anna Wolak warned that anyone with a fever that doesn’t reduce with Advil or Tylenol, or one higher than 40 degrees or lasting for several days, should contact a doctor.

“And if your child has symptoms like difficulty breathing, bluish tinge around the mouth, seizures, listlessness, not producing fluids, those should all warrant a trip to the emergency room,” said the family doctor.

While flu-related deaths are rare, they do happen annually, and three elementary-aged children have already died in eastern Ontario this year.