H1N1 activity decreasing
Posted Dec 3, 2009 07:51:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There has been a seventh death due to H1N1 in Nova Scotia, but the province’s top doctor says the second wave of the virus is waning.
Chief public health officer Dr. Robert Strang says there are fewer lab confirmed cases of H1N1 in the province, few hospitalizations, and fewer visits to the emergency room.
“Although H1N1 activity is decreasing, it certainly does continue to be present across Nova Scotia,” he said. “It is still the predominant respiratory virus.”
Strang says there has been an increase in people with flu-like symptoms visiting their doctors, which he says is a likely consequence of closing down assessment clinics.
The seventh Nova Scotian to die from H1N1 was a woman in her 40s, with underlying health conditions who died last week. Few other details are known, other than she was from the Halifax area.
Strang announced Wednesday that approximately 36.8 per cent of the population of the province has received the swine flu vaccine – contrary to reports from the Canadian Press that suggested Nova Scotia had only immunized 26 per cent.
“Canadian Press contacted each province, unfortunately they were given an out of date number when they contacted Nova Scotia,” explained Strang.
Dr. Strang, says the number increases, when you consider the people who got sick and became immune during the first swine flu wave in the spring.
“So I think if we look at around 10 per cent of the population has been infected, add on to that the number of people (who have been immunized) so we’re getting close to 50 per cent,” he said.
