WATCH: This year’s flu vaccine is proving to be no match for the most common strain this season — H3N2. Flu cases are up across the country. Kylie Stanton explains why this outbreak is so bad.
VANCOUVER – Flu Season is well underway, with hospitals across the country reporting a spike in flu cases. The most common strain this year is the H3N2, but the virus has mutated.
That means those who got a flu shot are not as protected as they might hope.
Dr. Danuta Skowronski, from the BC Centre for Disease Control, says the H3N2 strain started to pick up in the fall in long-term care facilities.
“We’re starting to see now community-level activity ramping up,” she says. “So we’re seeing higher than normal activity levels at this time of year.”
The flu vaccine this year includes three different types of influenza and there is now another vaccine that includes four kinds, with one of the components being H3N2. However, the World Health Organization chooses the vaccine for the year in February, so strains can change and mutate during the year.
That is what has happened with the H3N2 strain and the bug has hit most of the country hard.
WATCH: Dr. Danuta Skowronski from the BC Centre for Disease Control has advice to stay healthy this flu season.
“Right now we are hearing about fairly intense activity in Ontario and in parts of Quebec,” says Skowronski. “Alberta has also been affected, basically no region should consider itself exempt though, and likely, those areas in the coming weeks that haven’t yet been hit, will be.”
The elderly and very young, along with people with chronic conditions, could be most affected by this mutated strain and should seek medical help immediately if they develop influenza illness over the coming weeks.
Comments