Health officials are urging British Columbians to get a flu shot.
While this flu season is not expected to be as bad, there have already been multiple deaths across the country, including one here in B.C.
“This season has been one of the busiest ones we’ve had so far,” says London Drugs pharmacist Danny Tam. “I have done in excess of 300 so far this year. We’ve held two clinics on two separate days. We were fully booked for those clinics.”
There’s still vaccine available — some 400,000 doses were shipped within Vancouver Coastal Health; 1.1 million province wide.
Fortunately, it protects against the familiar H1N1 strain, back in a big way since its last major outbreak in 2009.
In Metro Vancouver, Fraser Health seems hardest hit, where about 1,800 people have gone to hospital with respiratory complaints. Twelve to fifteen people are in intensive care, none of them elderly.
“Most of the severe cases have been people between the ages of 20 and 60, who have other conditions,” says Fraser Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Van Buynder. “They are overweight, pregnant or have heart or other chronic diseases.”
The Prairies remain the hardest hit.
In Alberta, nearly 300 people are hospitalized with the flu: nine deaths have been attributed to H1N1, six have died in Saskatchewan.
READ MORE: Fraser Health says severe cases of H1N1 flu seen in Alberta popping up here
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