NEWS FILE PHOTO
Amanda Barron is given a flu vaccination by RN Christy Martens at an Alberta Health Services clinic in October.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The first flu related death in the south zone has been recorded, according to Alberta Health Services data released this week.
Across the province there have been six flu related deaths, considerably less than other years at this stage of the flu season.
Last year there had been 12 deaths province-wide and 10 of those were in the south zone. The most severe season was in 2017 with 33 deaths across Alberta and 13 in the south zone by the middle of December.
It is the influenza B strain that is being seen predominantly in laboratory confirmed flu with 733 across the province and 100 in the south zone. There were 595 lab confirmed cases of influenza A with 23 in the south zone.
To put that in perspective, last year there were 3182 cases of Influenza A in the province and 19 of Influenza B.
The number of people admitted to hospital with lab confirmed influenza in also considerably less than last year at this time. There were 626 cases last year and 241 this year. In the south zone that translated to 12 and eight respectively.
The number of people being immunized has increased over the years with 770,817 in 2015 and 1.2 million so far this season.
