CALGARY- It’s been three years since the H1N1 pandemic took the lives of 71 Albertans, yet we still haven’t seen the last of the deadly strain.
15 people have been hospitalized this year in Calgary, and it’s believed a Calgary professor died after a month-long battle with the illness last week.
“People need to be aware that influenza-whether it’s a pandemic strain or our seasonal strains-that they are not insignificant,” says Dr. Judy McDonald, medical officer of health for AHS. “Every year people get infections and do die.”
Calgary resident Sarah Adams says that when she came down with what seemed like a cold last December, she knew it was much worse.
“Because of how fast it progressed, because it just hit so quickly, I thought it was an aggressive bacteria or something,” she recalls. “I don’t smoke or anything so it was completely out of nowhere.”
Within 12 hours, she went to an urgent care clinic, suffering from symptoms like a high fever and extreme fatigue. She was diagnosed with likely having H1N1. Fortunately she recovered, but now wonders why AHS isn’t taking the cases more seriously.
“If it was back, wouldn’t they want to know and then track it and then know where it’s going?”
“While we feel we’re getting a pretty good count of all the numbers that are hospitalized because of influenza, we don’t know out there in the community how many cases we’ve had,” admits McDonald. “Normally most people can get over it in three to five days, but the fatigue and the cough can linger for week. There are, however, some people who are at higher risk for influenza complications.”
Alberta Health Services says there are three flu strains the influenza vaccine will protect against: H3N2, H1N1 and influenza B. The vaccine is still available.
With files from Tracy Nagai
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