In January, Saskatchewan saw more than 1,000 new lab-confirmed flu cases, putting the total number of influenza cases at more than 2,200 since September.
The 2016 – 2017 season saw 1,900 cases between September and April.
The province has seen a change in the strain of the virus, with the ‘Type B’ strain becoming more prevalent in the last week of January.
“We haven’t seen this much influenza B circulating for several years,” Dr. Denise Werker, Saskatchewan’s deputy chief medical health officer, said.
Within the last month confirmed cases of the virus have more than doubled and since September 11 people have died.
“Because of the amount of influenza B that is circulating, we know two of those deaths are related to influenza B,” Dr. Werker said.
But there is some good news, health officials say this season’s flu vaccine is more effective in tackling influenza B this season, compared to the dominant H3N2 influenza type A virus that peaked in December and is now on the decline.
Dr. Werker said it’s likely strain B has peaked, but they won’t know for sure for at least another week.
“Given the trend and given the fact that kids are on school break, it’s likely that influenza B has peaked, but the levels are still pretty high so it’s going to take a while for the influenza B to go down,” she explained.
If you haven’t received a flu shot yet, Dr. Werker adds it’s not recommended to do so at this point.
“Because influenza B is on the downside and it takes 10 to 14 days for the influenza vaccine to be effective, that’s why I wouldn’t be encouraging vaccination at this period of time,” Dr. Werker explained. “We do want the children who have not received their second dose, to receive their second dose.”