2023-11-29 19:22:59
If Quebec health authorities expect to see the wave of influenza break out a little before the holiday season, the virus has arrived in the rest of Canada. The constantly increasing contagion in La Belle Province also leads experts to believe that the flu season has already begun.
Posted at 2:22 p.m.
Ugo Giguère The Canadian Press
Data from the National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ) clearly indicates that the number of influenza cases has increased over the last three weeks. Adding strain A and B infections, there were 37 cases in the week ending November 4. This number increased to 50 cases the following week, then to 93 cases before jumping to 139 cases in the week ending November 25.
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), this increasing curve is “typical of the behavior of the virus at this time of year”. However, it is specified that “several indicators are taken into account to determine the start of the flu season” and that this has “not yet been announced”. However, we recognize that this will be done “very soon”.
Still according to the information transmitted by the MSSS, it is considered that during the week ending November 25, influenza activity was “low”, but that circulation was increasing.
The professor in the department of social and preventive medicine at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal, Benoit Mâsse, explains that we determine the start of the flu season when we reach a screening test positivity threshold of 5 % for a few consecutive weeks. This threshold has been reached in Canada, but not in Quebec. In his opinion, it won’t be long.
Public health experts therefore recommend that people at risk of complications linked to influenza and those around them get vaccinated.
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