By Dale Bass – Kamloops This Week
Interior Health is seeing an upswing in reported flu cases, but it is not unexpected, said medical health officer Dr. Trevor Corneil.
The time period after Christmas tends to be when more cases are reported, he said, and IH has put into place procedures at its acute-care facilities to minimize outbreaks.
In Kamloops, outbreaks have occurred at Ponderosa Lodge downtown and Overlander Residential Care in Brocklehurst. IH is asking people to postpone any visits to these facilities (as of press-time there were no outbreaks listed in a facility in the North Thompson Valley).
What is surprising is both influenza strains A and B are being seen, Corneil said.
The B virus, which is only found in humans and usually causes a less-severe reaction than type A, normally appears later in the winter.
This year’s vaccine is showing a 90 per cent effectiveness rate against type B, Corneil said; the rate is less for type A, the strain that can infect animals, most often wild birds. Type A virus is one that continues to change and is usually the cause of large flu epidemics.
Corneil said IH is continuing to say this year’s vaccine effectiveness for both types ranges from 50 to 70 per cent — and those are good odds for him.
He said the reality is most drugs don’t work as well as people expect them to and a 50 to 70 per cent rate of success would be seen as a good return in a lottery.
“Would you play?” he asked of those rates. “Yeah, because you’re likely to win. It’s better than lotteries now where the odds are one in 20 million. Any effectiveness is good.”
Plan before visiting
All sites with an outbreak are listed on the IH public website here and updated regularly.
Visitors to sites with outbreaks are asked to postpone their visit to a later date. Sites with outbreaks also post written notices at the entrance and contact family members directly.
Guests are encouraged to watch for these notices and delay their visit to a time that will be safer for their loved ones, themselves and the community as a whole.
Gastrointestinal infections (GI) are most commonly caused by viruses and bacteria The illness is spread from person to person through germs in the stool or vomit of infected people. Respiratory infections (RI) are spread through droplets containing the virus or bacteria when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Respiratory infections can be caused by influenza (the flu).
For more information about GI and RI illnesses, click here.
READ MORE: Flu vaccine effectiveness pegged at 50-70 per cent (Dec. 14, 2017)