Sask. health officials anticipate an increase in flu cases

Nearly 600 confirmed cases of influenza have been reported in Saskatchewan so far this flu season. Many of these cases were reported in the past couple of weeks, according to Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.

“We’ve also seeing an increase in hospitalizations due to influenza throughout the province. We do know that the dominant strain is the H3N2 strain,” Shahab said.

These hospitalizations include six people being admitted to intensive care units. Dr. Shahab said there has been one confirmed death from the flu this season.

Shahab said that the H3N2 strain affects elderly people more significantly. This is a cause of concern for officials, as there have been 20 flu outbreaks in long term care homes since September 1, 2016. Two of those outbreaks took place last week.

“The message right now is that if you have respiratory symptoms, don’t go and visit someone in a long term care facility,” Shahab said.

“Even when you do visit someone in a hospital or long term care facility, make sure you clean or sanitize yours hands.”

As of Jan. 7, Saskatchewan has seen 590 lab-confirmed cases of influenza. Almost half of these cases have been reported by the Saskatoon Health Region, at 279.

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Shahab anticipates more people will be getting sick in the coming weeks.

“Now that school is back, we fully expect the influenza “A” outbreak to peak this month and early in February,” he said.

Dedicated flu-shot clinics are done for the season, but vaccinations are in good supply and still being administered at clinics and pharmacies. So far, 240,000 people in the province have received the shot.

This is the second season pharmacists have been able to give the shot, and 84,000 have been administered by pharmacists so far.

Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan CEO Dawn Martin said that this is a major increase over the 56,000 shots administered by pharmacists last flu season.

“There’s a two week period where your full protection kicks in,” Martin said.

“It’s still really valuable to get your flu shot, and I think with the spike that we’re seeing in flu cases it’s still really important to get out there and get your flu shot.”

Martin added that there has been some misconception about how the flu shot is paid for at pharmacies across the province. Interested people are able to get vaccinated for free, just like at a clinic, and the local health region reimburses the pharmacy.

According to Martin, around 1,000 of the province’s 1,500 practicing pharmacists have been trained to administer shots.