After 39 deaths last season, N.L.'s top doc urges people not to be a flu stat

Don't convince yourself the time to get a flu shot has come and gone,because it hasn't, says Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer of health.

"The clinics will continue, so it's not too late to get your flu shot," Dr. Claudia Sarbu told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show.

So far this flu season, which covers the fall of2018 until the spring of 2019, one person has died in this province, said Sarbu.

There have also been 121 lab-confirmed cases of influenza and 21 people hospitalized so far this flu season in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Sarbusaid about 116,000 people have been immunized so far 6,000 more than this time last year.

Parents, listen up

Sarbuis encouraged that more people have gotten the flu shot compared with this time last year, but there is more work to be done.

"Please immunize children," she said.

"The smallest percentage of population immunized in our province is for children between the ages of five and 19, so parents, please invite your kids, go along with them, get your flu shots. It's not too late."

Six kids under the age of 10have died due to the flu this season, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, including three in Saskatchewanwho were not vaccinated.

Sarbusaid parents should make the flu shot a priority, even when kids are busy with extracurricular activites.

"It's just one evening that you take your kid out from after school activities to get the flu shot and you protect them for the full season," she said.

39 deaths last flu season

Last flu season was "a really nasty" one, said Sabaru.

In N.L., 39 people died, 352 were hospitalized and there were 912 lab-confirmed cases.

"[It] was the worst in decades," said Sarbu.

"Research is showing that death from influenza is not necessarilyhappening in the week you are sick [but] one or two weeks after the disease was resolved, you may have a stroke," or other complications, she added.

And if you don't have the flu, there is no better time to get the shot than right now.

"After you get the flu shot, the body needs two weeks to produce the protection against the flu," she said.

"if you have the flu already, it's too late."

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