Elevated level of flu activity in the province: BCCDC
Posted November 23, 2014 9:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Over the last two weeks there has been a slightly elevated level of flu activity across the province compared to the same time last year. Doctors are now re-focusing their attention to deal with that as the number of Enterovirus cases steadies.
This year, there was an earlier start than normal to the flu season, that’s according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.
Dr. Danuta Skowronski with the BCCDC admits doctors are a bit worried right now because there is another aggressive strain that’s spreading quickly.
“And the influenza virus that’s been showing its ugly head over the last few weeks is an H3N2 virus which can be quite nasty especially for the elderly, so we’re watching that one really closely. We may see it increase further over the next few weeks.”
She adds people with breathing problems, like asthma, and the elderly should consider getting a flu shot this season.
Meantime, new cases of Enterovirus seem to be on the decline, but the BCCDC will continue to monitor the situation.
“We need to learn more about it. This virus seems to have occurred in association with neurologic findings and we now have four confirmed cases that experienced neurologic manifestations. The contribution of [Enterovirus] D68 isn’t entirely known but it’s certainly something we want to follow up on and investigate,” explains Skowronski.
In total, there are 132 confirmed cases of Enterovirus D68, which has hit children with breathing problems especially hard this year, given two-thirds of the cases are in children under the age of 10.
BCCDC link
