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About FluWatch
FluWatch is Canada's national surveillance system that monitors the spread of flu and flu-like illnesses on an on-going basis. FluWatch reports, posted every Friday, contain specific information for health professionals on flu viruses circulating in Canada.
The FluWatch program consists of a network of labs, hospitals, doctor's offices and provincial and territorial ministries of health. Program objectives include to:
- Detect flu outbreaks across the country as early as possible
- Provide timely up-to-date information on flu activity in Canada and abroad to health professionals [and interested Canadians]
- Monitor circulating strains of the flu virus (like H1N1) and assess their sensitivity to antiviral medications, [such as Tamiflu and Relenza]. Antivirals, when used by doctors to treat flu, can help reduce the severity of the illness and the recovery time for a patient
- Provide information that the World Health Organization can use to make its recommendations on the best vaccine to use for seasonal flu shots.
The Summary Box below covers the main findings from the current week's FluWatch posting and contains links to specific information, graphs and charts contained in the publication.
Summary of FluWatch Findings for the
Week ending March 6, 2010
- During week 9, the overall influenza activity remained low for at least 11 consecutive weeks and all influenza indicators were still considerably below expected levels for this time of the year.
- One region in BC (Vancouver Coastal) reported localized activity and one outbreak in a school.
- For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the proportion of positive tests for influenza B (0.08%) was higher than the proportion for influenza A (0,04%). However, only three specimens were positive for influenza (one pandemic H1N1 2009 and two influenza B) out of the 2,574 specimens tested for influenza in week 9.
- Respiratory syncytial virus detections were still high in week 9 with 24.0% of tests being positive for RSV.
- No new hospitalized cases with pandemic H1N1 2009 were reported this week. Since the beginning of 2010, only 10 hospitalizations and two deaths have occurred.
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