10 more die in Ontario from Swine Flu, 18 across Canada

An Alberta infant with no previous medical history is among 18 new deaths from Swine Flu.10 more have died in Ontario. So far, 8,102 hospitalizations across the country, 1,332 people admitted to ICU and 593 on life support. A boy, 16, died in Alberta.

OTTAWA – Swine Flu took ten more lives in Ontario and eight more in other provinces to boost Canada’s fatalities total from the pandemic virus to 390. In Alberta, an infant with no previous medical history was among two reported dead. Also, Mike Gorbous, a 16-year-old grade-11 Calgary student died on Tuesday after being in a coma since Nov. 2. But Gorbous’s death is not among the two reported in Alberta. The additional ten deaths in Ontario – along with one more that has not been lab confirmed – comes as a surprise because the province has reported a decline in all other indicators including hospital admissions and visits to doctors for influenza like illness. The 18 new deaths occurred between December 10 and December 15. A total of 113 people have died in Ontario, mostly since the start of the second wave of Swine Flu which struck in October. Two more deaths in Alberta, three in B.C. and three in Quebec were reported to take the national toll to 390. The latest detailed analysis by the government for the period Nov. 29 to Dec. 5 shows 8,102 hospitalizations across the country with 1,332 people admitted to ICU and 593 on life support. The federal agency also said that children under five had the highest rate of hospitalizations while those older than 45 had the highest mortality rate. “The under 5 year olds continued to have the highest hospitalization rates since the beginning of the pandemic while those 45 years of age and older had the highest mortality rates per 100,000 population,” said the report. “Comparing the rates of hospitalization, ICU admissions and deaths between those with underlying medical conditions and those without since the beginning of the pandemic, those with underlying medical conditions were almost 5 times more likely to be hospitalized, 7 times more likely to be admitted to ICU and more than 10 times more likely to die compared to those without underlying medical conditions,” said the report which also states that there is a decline in number of hospitalizations and deaths since the second wave of the pandemic crested in mid-November. “In week 48, 25 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated paediatric hospitalizations and 1 death were reported through the Immunization Monitoring Program Active (IMPACT) network,” the report said. “All of these cases were due to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009. 1,306 (pediatric) hospitalizations had been reported since week 17 (April 26): 97.0% of these hospitalizations were officially due to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009. Since the beginning of the pandemic, ten paediatric deaths due to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 were reported through the IMPACT network among children under 16 years of age. The death reported this week was in an infant from AB who had no known medical conditions,” it said.