Alberta flu cases spike, 5 deaths confirmed

Alberta Health Services (AHS) says there are more than 965confirmed flu cases in the province and there havebeen five deaths.

"Those are only people who have gone to seek medical attention and physicians have done specimens that have been sent to the lab and those have been confirmed positive," said Dr. Judy McDonald."We expect that there is much more influenza circulating in our communities that has not been lab confirmed."

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Officials say 920 of those cases are of theH1N1strain, which iscovered by this year's fluvaccine. The overall number of flu cases has jumped by 50 per cent in one week.

Dr. Glen Armstrong, an infectious disease expert,says the numbers aren't a record but more than the province hasseen in recent years.

"It may be that because we've had a bit of a holiday over the last couple of years. People have become complacent and are thinking, 'OK, it's no big deal, you know I don't need to get vaccinated,'" he said.

Armstrongsays even if you got the H1N1 vaccine during the 2009 pandemic, you should get immunized again.

"Because you don't get lifelong immunity,...you get sort of a spike of immunity that will protect you for maybe a year or so.But after that immunity starts to wane and so this is a good opportunity to get revaccinated and to boost your immunity back up again to give you maximum protection," he said.

Mass immunization clinics reopen

Health officials are urging people to get the vaccination, particularly before children head back to school.

Albertans who have not yet received a flu shot can still visit AHS mass immunization clinics, local pharmacies and family physician offices.

The vaccine is still available, free of charge, to all Albertans six months of age and older.But officials are reminding Albertans that children under the age of nine are not able to receive the vaccine at pharmacies.

Alberta Health Servicesclinics at Brentwood Mall inCalgary'snorthwest and at the South Calgary Health Centre are both open today.

Mass immunization clinics in Edmonton will reopen Friday at theBonnieDoon Health Centre and Northgate Health Centre from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MT.

For complete details on clinic locations and hours, call Health Link Alberta toll free at 1-866-408-5465 or visit albertahealthservices.ca/influenza.