Canada’s flu season has peaked and is nearly over, according to the latest National Flu Watch report Released January 13th.
In the week of Jan. 1-Jan. 7, the report said influenza had “dropped sharply” from its peak at the end of November 2022 and is now “below expected pre-pandemic levels.” says.
FluWatch is Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) national flu surveillance system, which releases a report every Friday during the flu season.
Influenza levels are now reaching expected levels typical of this time of year, reports said.
The number of hospitalized children has also dropped sharply from a peak of 247 hospitalizations that occurred in the week of 27 November to 3 December 2022 and is now within normal levels. In the first week of January, her 30 pediatric hospitalizations related to influenza were reported.
flu season
The flu season began early in 2022 on August 28, and by January 7, 3,690 influenza-related hospitalizations, 311 ICU admissions, and 218 deaths were reported. 1,534 of them were children.
From 28 August to 7 January 2022, 572 laboratory-confirmed influenza outbreaks were reported. Sixteen of them were new cases in the first week of 2023, 11 of which occurred in long-term care facilities.
In terms of influenza figures for which age information is available, 48% of the influenza index were over 65 years old, an increase of 40% since the last week of December.
Regarding medical visits, only 1.7% had flu symptoms, slightly lower than typical levels for this time of year. below the level.
The highest cumulative hospitalization rates in week 1 of 2023 were in adults 65 and older (120/100,000 population) and children under 5 (116/100,000 population).
Pediatrics
In early November, children’s hospitals across the country reported an emergency due to hospitalizations of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). PHAC data show that RSV activity, which typically peaks in winter, was above expected levels for that time of year.
About 1,309 were detected out of 16,856 tests conducted in the week ending 5 November. That’s a 7.77% positive test rate, more than double the 3.57% three weeks ago when just over 500 out of 14,114 were detected. test.
Influenza A was now another respiratory virus with cases exceeding expected levels in the fall of 2022, according to PHAC. The influenza A test-positive rate was 6.44 percent among 1,077 positive cases in the week ending 29 October, compared with 1.53 percent in the week ending 15 October.
Marnie Cathcart is a reporter based in Edmonton.