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Newfoundland and Labrador’s chief medical officer of health is urging residents to get a flu shot ahead of the holidays.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said flu season had an early start across Canada, and only 20 per cent of people eligible in Newfoundland and Labrador have gotten the vaccine so far.
“We don’t usually start seeing the peak … here till after Christmas, you know, later in January,” Fitzgerald told reporters on Thursday morning.
Her concerns come as a surge of influenza cases among school-aged kids in Ontario has been linked to multiple recent deaths in that province. It prompted calls for families to get vaccinated as medical experts brace for a worsening wave of infections across all age groups.
Seniors and school-aged children between five and nine years old are most vulnerable.
“Kids can get quite sick from the flu, and as we’ve seen in Ontario, there have unfortunately been a few deaths. So we want to prevent that from happening,” Fitzgerald said.
Currently, very few children in Newfoundland and Labrador have received the flu shot.
“We’re seeing less than 10 per cent of the children’s population being vaccinated,” Fitzgerald said.
Recent federal data shows more than 20 per cent of all influenza tests are now coming back positive, with the most detections among people aged 19 and under.
N.L.’s worst flu season
Last year’s flu season was Newfoundland and Labrador’s worst, Fitzgerald said.
“There were over 2,000 lab-confirmed cases and 743 hospitalizations, both which were the most we’ve ever recorded,” she told reporters in October.
This year’s flu shot is trivalent — meaning it can protect against three different strains of circulating virus.
On Thursday, Fitzgerald said the flu vaccine will likely make some recipients sick for a couple of days — but that’s what it’s supposed to do.
“What I can tell you is that the flu will be a lot worse than the side effects from the vaccine,” she said. “That’s your immune system kicking in and doing the work that it needs to do to help prepare you to fight off any virus that comes into your body.”
She said the flu going around is not just a case of the sniffles.
“The flu itself is actually a very significant infection. People generally feel very unwell with high fevers, not able to get out of bed for several days to a week,” Fitzgerald said.
Public health is recommending that everyone six months and older receive their flu shot as soon as possible.
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