So far, Flu Season Normal for Northern Health
Prince George, B.C. – The flu season is well underway, but so far, there has been nothing out of the ordinary in the Northern Health region.
Michael MacMillan, Chief Operating Officer for the Northern Interior region of Northern Health says so far, there has been one lab confirmed case of H1N1 “Most flu cases have been either self diagnosed or the family doctor confirms it as flu, based on symptoms, but we are not seeing anything out of the ordinary when it comes to numbers of cases.”
MacMillan says there has been what he calls a “small handful “ of serious cases, which is the norm for flu season, but there have been no deaths.
B.C. and the Northern Interior in particular, haven’t seen the scenario that is playing out in Alberta. In that province, there have been five deaths from the flu, 965 confirmed cases of flu, 920 of which are confirmed as H1N1.
MacMillan says there are two best bets to ward off the flu, get a flu shot, and wash your hands a lot. There are still opportunities to get the vaccine at your Doctor’s office, a pharmacy or at a clinic.
Comments
I wonder how long it will be before the H1N1 virus that is in Alberta shows its ugly head here?
Is Northern Health ready for the possibility?
I doubt it….
Wasn’t there a nationally coordinated immunization for H1N1 a couple years ago?
Everyone will be ok, because they got immunized, right? ;-)
Johnny if that was the case why is there another out break? just asking
@bcracer: You must have missed my winky face at the end of my last post, so I’ll post it again. ;-)
didn’t miss it….lol
The H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic happened in 2009. Children under 5 years of age were not around then, and therefore have no exposure or immunization to the H1N1 strain. These chidden are particularly at risk of getting the flu and should be immunized.
The mass vaccination clinics in 2009 provided a somewhat effective immunization, but after 5 years it is recommended that the public receive another vaccination.
Did they fix the h1n1 vaccine so it doesn’t screw up your immune system and make you more likely to get the regular flu?
Don’t know about that, but they do think a 3 fold spike in childhood narcolepsy was associated with the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak.
Dr. Mignot is on the hunt to understand the cause of the phenomenon, collecting blood samples from children with the disorder from around the globe. In China he reviewed narcolepsy cases following the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. He discovered that China had a threefold increase in the sleep disorder. The majority were children.
His theory is that in some cases, the H1N1 virus itself triggered the immune system to destroy hypocretin cells in the brain that run the sleep-wake cycle, research he published in the Annals of Neurology in 2011.
“Before H1N1 we were getting closer but we could not really find (the trigger),” he said. âAnd then with H1N1 it was clear that the flu had to be involved at least for this outbreak.â
His research is also showing most of the children affected by the outbreak — had a genetic predisposition to narcolepsy.
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/sleeping-sickness-a-w5-investigation-into-the-sudden-rise-in-childhood-narcolepsy-1.1524420#ixzz2pPFPiPUq
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