The flu is on the rise this season in Calgary, with 113 more lab-confirmed flu cases and 22 additional hospitalizations since last week.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) updates the province’s flu numbers each week on its website.
Edmonton has seen 13 more cases and only two more hospitalizations since the last report.
That brings the totals for this flu season to 361 confirmed cases in Calgary along with 102 hospitalizations, and 41 cases in Edmonton with 14 hospitalizations.
Watch below from Dec. 1: Alberta Health Services says too many people are downplaying the dangers of the flu and not getting protected. This comes as Calgary reported Alberta’s first flu-related death of the season. Kim Smith reports.
AHS data showed the flu’s death toll remains at one, someone from the Calgary area, though no details were provided citing privacy issues.
READ MORE: Alberta reports 1st flu death of 2016-17 season in Calgary
“Even healthy people can get influenza and have bad outcomes,” said Dr. Judy MacDonald, medical health officer with Alberta Health Services, in a past interview. “It is important that people take influenza seriously. It’s not a walk in the park. It’s not just a sniffle or two.”
According to Dr. Gerry Predy, senior medical officer of health with Alberta Health Services, the virus hit the Calgary region first this year before spreading elsewhere.
“When influenza hits the province, it starts in one part and then spreads from there,” Predy said in a past interview.
READ MORE: Flu arriving ‘a little early’ in Calgary this year, says AHS
Last year, 62 people in Alberta died after contracting the flu.
With files from Kim Smith
Comments