661, including 120 kids, hospitalized from Swine Flu in Canada
Intense flu is reported in most regions of Canada (dark blue).
By Salim Jiwa
OTTAWA – 661 Canadians, including 120 children, were admitted to hospitals across in the country in the latest one week period suffering from symptoms of flu.
“Nationally, there was a considerable increase in the influenza activity level reported this week,” said a federal government Swine Flu surveillance report . “The Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 strain accounted for nearly 100% (99.7%) of the positive influenza A subtyped specimens.”
“The intensity of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in the population was high with 661 hospitalizations and 8 deaths (these have escalated following publication of this report) reported this week. Hospitalized cases were reported in all provinces and territories except MB and NU while the deaths were from BC, AB, ON & NL,” said the flu activity report for the period Oct. 25 to Oct. 31.
“Numbers of new hospitalizations were more than three times higher than last week. 737 influenza outbreaks were reported this week of which 710 occurred in schools,” said the government.
Despite the high level of school outbreaks, governments across the country have failed to close schools to stem the spread of community illness.
115 Canadians have died so far from H1N1 infections, with 14 dying in a two day period between Nov.3 and Nov. 5.
“A total of 2,440 hospitalized cases including 443 cases admitted to ICU and 230 cases required ventilation as well as 100 (current 115) deaths of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 were reported to PHAC as of October 31, 2009,” said the government body.
“There was a considerable increase in the number of hospitalizations and deaths reported during the last week with QC, BC, and ON reporting the highest numbers,” said the public health agency of Canada.
“People under 20 years of age had the highest consultations rates with (with doctors) 293 and 239 per 1,000 patient visits among children under 5 years of age and among those 5 and 19 years of age, respectively,” it said.
“In week 43, 120 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated paediatric hospitalizations were reported through the Immunization Monitoring Program Active (IMPACT) network. 116 Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and 4 other hospitalizations due to unsubtyped influenza A were reported this week,” it said.
“605 hospitalizations had been reported since week 17 (April 26); 95.2% of these hospitalizations were due to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009. Since the beginning of the pandemic, four deaths due to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 had been reported through the IMPACT network among children under 16 years of age.”
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