VANCOUVER – Health officials in British Columbia are urging parents to get their young children vaccinated against the flu before the holiday season as the province deals with crowded emergency rooms.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said after two years of low flu rates, largely due to travel restrictions, the province is experiencing a “dramatic increase” in the illness and it arrived earlier than normal .
“We know, much more than COVID, influenza can cause more serious illness in children, especially young children, and it can lead to secondary bacterial infections with things like strep and pneumococcus that can cause very serious pneumonia,” he said Monday.
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“And that’s the concern we have now.”
Henry said there is still time for people to get a flu shot to protect themselves and their children, especially as the holiday season approaches.
“We are starting to see the impact of a large number of children who have not been exposed to the flu for a number of years and a small proportion of them are becoming seriously ill,” he said.
“So now is the time to make a difference and get this vaccine now.”
According to the most recent data from the BC Center for Disease Control, during the week of November 20, 169 patients were at BC Children’s Hospital with some type of respiratory virus. Of these, 71 had the flu.
Henry said the province started seeing flu numbers rise about two weeks ago and flu season usually lasts about two months.
Although the province is on track for a record number of people getting flu shots this year, Dr. Penny Ballem of BC Vaccine Operations said Monday that only 20 per cent of children under the age of five are they have vaccinated
The government will use its provincial health registry to contact parents to try to increase that number.
Ballem said they will text and email the families of about 150,000 children under five who are not part of the province’s vaccine reservation system and invite them to make an appointment.
He said there is also a major campaign on social media by the government and health authorities encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said visits to provincial emergency rooms had been averaging 6,700 per day, but are now peaking at 6,900 patients per day, with additional pressure on BC Children’s and Fraser hospitals Health.
BC Children’s briefly called a code orange on Saturday, a step sometimes used in mass casualty events. He stood up 28 minutes later.
Dix said it was determined that the code should not be enacted to make the mandatory overtime call, which was necessary at the time.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on December 5, 2022.
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