Have you received your flu shot yet this season? It seems as though many haven’t.
According to Alberta Health, the number of people who have received flu vaccinations this year has declined compared to last year.
About 451,000 doses of the influenza vaccination have been handed out province-wide, which is about seven percent less than this time last year.
With the holiday season right around the corner, health officials are urging people to get their shots
“It doesn’t matter when flu season happens. The holidays, when there’s lots of people gathering, is a time when you can end up with more transmission,” explained Dr. James Talbot, Chief Medical Officer of Health, Alberta Health.
He says numbers could be down for a number of reasons, including the fact that people usually tend to wait to get their shot until after they see the flu going around the community.
“It’s actually a mistake. You want to get your flu shot before there’s a lot of activity, because for the first five or seven days you’re not really protected.”
Another factor could be hesitation. Last month, the province temporarily suspended the use of the Agriflu vaccine as a precautionary measure, after the discovery of white particulate matter in some batches of the vaccine.
“I hope that’s not the case, because that turned out to be just the system being overly cautious,” said Talbot.
The province also offers a nasal flu mist, for those wary of needles. The nasal mist was originally offered to only those aged two to 17 but, on Thursday the province opened it up to anyone, because it wasn’t as popular as first thought. The province’s chief medical health officer says only 38,000 doses of a total 150,000 available had been administered as of early November.
Talbot is encouraging those who want the vaccine, to get it sooner rather than later.
“We’re still at the stage where the flu hasn’t hit that place where it starts to take off and you can hear people coughing next to you on the LRT or people are not showing up at work.”
Last year about 22 percent of Alberta’s population received flu vaccinations.
With files from Kendra Slugoski.
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