With school out, flu cases drop
July 4, 2009
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Theresa Boyle
HEALTH REPORTER
Canada has seen a drop in swine flu cases, good news that's being largely attributed to the fact school is out.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is undertaking surveillance of the H1N1 influenza virus by gathering information from several hundred "sentinel practitioners" across the country. They report weekly on the number of patients they see with influenza-like illness and this serves as an indicator for the number of new H1N1 cases countrywide.
For the week ending June 27, sentinel practitioners reported 34 consultations with patients for influenza-like illness for every 1,000 patients visits, down from 42 the week before, for a drop of 19 per cent. "This is good news. It happened the week that schools closed and I would guess that there is probably a reasonable link there," Dr. Michael Gardam, director of infectious diseases prevention for the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, said yesterday.
He expects the numbers to continue to go down over the summer because students won't be infecting each other in school and because influenza viruses tend not to like humid weather. Still, he said, it's difficult to accurately predict where this virus is going.
"It's reasonable to say that the dropping trend might continue if you believe the idea the schools have an important role to play in this. But I'm not putting any money down on it. ... It's a pandemic virus and they do weird things," he said.
Toronto Star
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