Last year’s quiet start to the flu season is not being repeated.
As of Dec. 24 – the last date for which statistics are available – there had been 48 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza reported to Region of Waterloo Public Health.
That number is expected to increase significantly by next week, when data for the final few days of 2016 becomes available.
“We have seen increased activity since Christmas,” Karen Quigley-Hobbs, the region’s director of infectious diseases, said Wednesday.
While the number of cases seen so far this year is about three times what had been witnessed one year ago, it remains more or less in line with the region’s long-term averages.
“We’re still well within the normal patterns,” said Quigley-Hobbs.
Health officials recommend the flu shot as the best line of defence against the virus.
Quigley-Hobbs says that’s especially the case this year, as this year’s vaccine is a “really good match” for the most common strain of influenza being reported.
According to Quigley-Hobbs, influenza reports typically come in at a higher rate in the days after Christmas, and then again in late February and early March.
With reporting by Marc Venema
