Alberta Health Services released the latest statistics on influenza in the province this week and they show that the Calgary Zone, including Airdrie, is still the hardest hit thus far in the province.

AHS says that figures to December 7th show that just over one million doses of flu vaccine have been administered in the province.  with the Calgary zone leading the way with 416,015 doses.  AHS Medical Officer of Health Dr. Judy MacDonald says 4,100 of those doses have been given out by public health to Airdrie residents.  She doesn't know how many have been administered by doctors and pharmacists in the city.

Of the 1,772 lab-confirmed cases of the flu, 925 have been in the Calgary zone.  That compares to just 282 in the Edmonton zone, the second most in the province.

Dr. MacDonald says the flu isn't picking on us, it's simply a case of where it got started first. 

"You know that influenza will come every year.  Sometimes it will come sooner, sometimes later so another year where it's arrived early and arrived first in Calgary so just like last year, it did the same thing.  When you compare the influenza activity in the Calgary zone to what's happening in the rest of the province, we are ahead, because things got started here first, but, the other zones are certainly coming along with their influenza activity.  It has to start somewhere and we've drawn the short straw, I guess you could say, the second year in a row.  It's not unexpected, it does come every year and we're certainly in the thick of it now."

277 of the 459 Albertans who have been hospitalized with the flu have been in the Calgary zone and six of the eight deaths being blamed on influenza have also been in our region.

The number of doses administered in the Calgary zone is also ahead of last year, according to Dr. MacDonald.  "416,000 and that compares to about 367,000 doses administered last year, so we're up about 48,000 over the same point in time last year."

While MacDonald says that number is encouraging she warns, "If you haven't been immunized, you're still at risk.  I'd certainly encourage you to get your vaccine.  It's still available."

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