It’s a very unique flu season, nothing researchers have ever seen before.
Dr. James Dickinson is a family physician and also runs the Alberta Community Influenza Surveillance Program.
“There is no flu. There has been no human influenza in Alberta this season,” Dickinson said.
“In previous years we are talking about thousands of cases and there’s none. It’s a fantastic difference.”
Travel restrictions have kept certain viruses from coming into the province. He also said increased hygiene with handwashing, as well as physical distancing and masks have contributed to the dramatic decrease in influenza cases. He’s encouraged by the silver linings, but said there’s a chance this could backfire.
“My slight worry is it may come back worse. We are going to have a group of children who have not met all these infections which they get in first years of preschool, so maybe they’ll be more susceptible,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson said there’s also a possibility some viral illnesses could disappear, but time will tell.
Jason Chan Remillard owns a Pharmasave in Calgary’s northwest community of Brentwood.
He said customers just aren’t coming in as often to buy remedies for a runny nose. Prescriptions for antibiotics are at an all-time low and his store’s shelves are adequately stocked with cold and flu medications.
“This is new for us. In the winter you get people coming in with watery eyes, congested and coughing, that’s not the case this season,” Remillard said.
He also said the overall awareness about personal health is making a difference.
“There’s a lot more flu shots this year. We did 500 last year and this year 2,000 people got the shot, so they are looking at health and being more preventative,” Remillard said.
Calgarians admit the habits they have created from COVID-19, mean they are aren’t getting sick as often.
Brenda Bain said her work has her dealing with a lot of the public but she’s not getting viruses as frequently.
“I’ve noticed I don’t seem to be catching what I normally catch because of handwashing and masks and things like that,” Bain said.
Doris Sennhauser said she rarely gets the flu but notice young children aren’t as ill.
“My grandkids have not had a flu or cold this whole season,” Sennhauser said.
Alberta Health Services data shows 1,560,596 flu vaccines have been administered this season and so far there have been zero confirmed cases of the flu in Alberta.
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