Although it appears like cases of influenza in Alberta seem to be diminishing a bit, an official with Alberta Health Services says don't put away your Kleenex box or hot water bottle just yet.

Medical Officer of Health for the Calgary Zone Dr. Judy McDonald says it's only January.

"It certainly does look like our numbers of lab-confirmed cases and hospitalized cases seem to be decreasing compared to what we saw even in December, but as to whether we're finished for the season, we're only in January and anything can happen."

The Calgary Zone of AHS continues to be the hardest hit in the province, as it has been since the beginning of the season.  Over 2,500 lab-confirmed cases of the A and B strains of the flu have hit the Calgary Zone.   845 of those cases have required hospitalization compared with 610 during the entire 2016-2017 flu season.  20 people have died with lab-confirmed cases of influenza, one more than in last year's flu season.  

"Calgary really had a worse time of it in terms of the number of cases and number of hospitalized individuals, even when you look at it on a population basis.  It looks like numbers are coming down in other zones so they didn't get to the same point that we did as far as influenza activity," according to Dr. MacDonald.

Although this year's flu vaccine seems to be proving less effective than past vaccines, MacDonald still advises everyone to get immunized.

"We know it's always challenging to make a vaccine starting in February for use in the Northern Hemisphere the following fall, to understand exactly what kind of virus might be circulating then.  I would couch that in words that the vaccine isn't ineffective but the vaccine has variable effectiveness.  The recommendation still is the best way to protect yourself and others."

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