With the flu season hitting especially hard this winter, Fraser Health has declared the current influenza strain a health hazard under the Public Health Act.
There have been more than 20 outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the Fraser region, and emergency department visits related to the flu are at their highest level in years, Fraser Health announced last week.
Taking special measures to curb the outbreak, the health authority has mandated all those visiting a residential care or assisted-living facility must wear a mask if they have not had a flu shot. Fraser Health is also urging anyone who is feeling unwell to avoid these facilities.
"We are asking our patients, visitors and staff to take these extra steps to protect their family members, patients, residents and loved ones from this highly contagious and serious virus," said Paul Van Buynder, the authority's chief medical health officer, in a recent press release.
The flu season typically lasts from about November to April. Already this season, twice as many influenza outbreaks have occurred as in the last three years combined.
"The season that we're seeing right now is among the worst that we've seen in recent years . the last couple of years have been particularly mild, but even looking at a historical kind of average, it's worse than average," said Fraser Health spokesperson, Roy Thorpe-Dorward.
There has also been four times the usual number of flu-related hospitalizations of people in long-term care facilities, and three times the usual number of associated deaths.
At hospital emergency rooms around the Fraser Health region, the number of people with flu-like symptoms in one week this season reached about 1,500.
For information on flu shot clinics, visit www.fraserhealth.ca.
