Flu season is in full swing on Vancouver Island, with one local care facility closed to visitors due to an outbreak.
Officials at The Heights at Mount View took the step Dec. 23. A confirmed outbreak of influenza affected 20 residents out of a total of 252 at its peak, and is now down to 13 cases, spokeswoman Deanna Bogart said Monday.
Despite the restriction on visitors, Bogart said friends and loved ones can still arrange to take a resident for an outing. “We are definitely following a very strict infection-control protocol and I would say that it seems to be working.”
Tests for respiratory or influenza-like illness are pending at Victoria’s Beacon Hill Villa and Fir Park Village in Port Alberni, while a gastrointestinal or norovirus-like illness, rather than the flu, is affecting Central Park Lodge-Glenwarren and the acute-care unit at Victoria General Hospital.
There have also been previous outbreaks at Island facilities this flu season, said Dr. Richard Stanwick, chief medical health officer for Island Health.
The flu season generally runs from late November or December through March, and Stanwick said this year is typical, with about 56 Island residents requiring hospitalization for influenza so far. “We’re well within what would be considered an average flu year.”
To date, “attack rates” have ranged from about half a dozen people with the flu to as much as 30 per cent of a resident population, Stanwick said. “All we need to do is have two individuals with confirmed influenza to call it an outbreak.”
Stanwick said outbreaks at long-term care facilities are no surprise, since residents can have a wide range of health problems.
“Their immune systems are certainly not on par with the average healthy adult in Victoria or on the Island. Even with a perfect vaccine, not everyone will develop the antibodies we’d like to see.”
In the general population, the tendency for people to be in crowds at this time of year for shopping and other activities creates fertile ground for the flu, Stanwick said. “In addition to sharing goodwill and friendship, you might be sharing the influenza virus.”
The flu circulating right now is H3N2, a strain of influenza A, he said, while influenza B is more sporadic.
About 275,000 doses of vaccine were received by Island Health and it is still available, Stanwick said.
The medical health officer said people can reduce their susceptibility to the flu by avoiding getting overtired or rundown.
“It can be quite a nasty experience, even for a healthy individual,” he said. “It starts with basically respiratory symptoms, a nasty cough. You often will get a headache-y feeling, a sense of malaise, muscle aches can be quite significant.
“It doesn’t matter which of the strains you get. If you’re unfortunate enough, you can experience all of those wonderful symptoms.”
