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Three children between the ages of five and nine have died from complications of influenza this month, health officials in Ottawa and a neighbouring region said Monday.
Ottawa Public Health and the Eastern Ontario Health Unit did not specify in their joint statement where or when the children died.
“Pediatric deaths due to influenza occur every year in Canada, but it is unusual to see this number of deaths over such a short period of time,” Dr. Trevor Arnason, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, told CBC News in an interview Monday.
Both health authorities are renewing their call for everyone to get vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible.
“We’re still in advance of the holiday season, [before] people are at gatherings and visiting with others, [so now is] the most critical time to be vaccinated,” Arnason said.
This year’s flu season has arrived earlier than normal, he added.
Multiple warnings this month
CHEO, Ottawa’s children’s hospital, said Monday that 300 positive results from flu tests were recorded Dec. 1-10, compared to only 11 during the same period last year.
The hospital has warned of a concerning rise in flu-related visits. Last week, the hospital asked family doctors in the region to step up their flu-fighting efforts.
As of the last official update from Ottawa Public Health, flu levels in the capital were “very high” and rising.
National flu statistics require some context because different jurisdictions report data differently.
As of Dec. 6, fewer than five children had died from the flu at 15 children’s hospitals across eight of the 10 provinces including Ontario.
Arnason said children are not the group most at risk of flu-related complications, noting that 90 per cent of influenza-related deaths happen in adults over 65 years old.
“People seem to think it only will affect the elderly, but that’s wrong. We know that it affects both ends of the age spectrum,” said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, medical officer of health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit.
Roumeliotis said his region has over 200 cases of flu, whereas this time last year, “we were maybe at 50.”
