Map of influenza activity by province and territory, Canada, March 8-14, 2020.--FluWatch image: Public Health Agency of Canada
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
As we approach the tail end of the regular influenza season, the number of people who have died from flu in the province is 36 and in the south zone six, according to the most recent data provided by Alberta Health Services (AHS).
The data covers the period from Aug. 25, 2019 to March 26, 2020.
More than 8,388 Albertans have had laboratory confirmed influenza this season. This is broken down further into two specific strains of flu, influenza “A” and influenza “B”.
There have been 4,658 cases of “A” across the province this season and 461 in the south zone. There were 3,730 confirmed cases of influenza “B” in the whole province and 347 in the south zone.
A total of 1,437 people had to be hospitalized with confirmed cases of influenza this season and 83 were in the south zone.
It is worth comparing the hospitalizations and deaths to previous years at roughly the same stage of the season:
Year Hospitalizations Deaths South zone Deaths
2016 1413 95 55 4
2017 1396 109 53 7
2018 2879 186 88 7
2019 1391 74 30 1
2020 1437 83 36 6
Of the 36 deaths in Alberta this flu season, Edmonton had the highest at 15, Calgary nine, the south zone six, central zone four and the north zone two.
The number of people who received influenza vaccine administered by AHS, public health and pharmacists up to March 21 was, 1,426,778 across the whole province. In the south zone that number was 101,051.
