Alberta hits 15-year high for flu deaths, health experts point to low immunization
Posted Apr 29, 2024 5:26 pm.
Some startling numbers show Alberta has hit a 15-year high when it comes to flu deaths.
The province has lost 167 people to influenza over the last year, according to the government’s respiratory virus dashboard, making for the deadliest flu season in over a decade.
Alberta’s NDP health critic points to low vaccination rates and says the province is to blame. She is calling on the UCP government to launch a “proper, informative immunization campaign.”
Metz claims the province undermined vaccine awareness last year by tampering with Alberta Health Service’s fall influenza campaign.
READ MORE: Albertans feeling vaccine fatigue, pharmacists say
Dr. Dan Gregson is an infectious diseases specialist from the University of Calgary, and says he agrees with Metz. He points to an effective advertising campaign launched in the U.S., one he says made a big difference south of the border.
“It was a turn the wild into mild kind of ad, to what influenza immunization would do for you, in terms of changing that severe illness into something relatively mild,” he says.
“In a year like this, a large number of people getting influenza, you would have reduced your risk by about half for hospitalizations or death.”
Just over 25 per cent of Albertans chose to roll up their sleeve for a flu shot this past season. The province is seeing three times the number of flu deaths since the before start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you want to see how well-performing a healthcare system is, just check the immunization rates, and if there not good, the rest of the system is usually not performing that well either,” says Dr. Louis Francescutti, an ER doctor at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.
He says as a student at Johns Hopkins University he was given that insight from Donald Henderson — the man responsible for eradicating small pox.
Gregson says weak immunity and a strong H1N1 strain have been key contributors to Alberta’s record flu deaths. He says the influenza vaccine has some added benefits that not enough people are aware of.
“(The flu) increases your risk of cardiac disease in the month or two after you have it as well,” he says. “So the vaccine actually also benefits your heart.”
