Though Hamilton hasn't yet had its first official case of the flu just yet, the city is preparing to roll out doses of the flu vaccine this week to get in front of flu season.
Anyone over 6 months old is eligible for a flu shot starting on Oct. 23, public health says. You can get them at family doctors, walk in clinics and local pharmacies throughout the city.
"It's a great opportunity for people to get the vaccine now," said Kim Dias, the manager of the vaccine program for the city's public health unit. Up until this week, the city has only been vaccinating high-risk people like seniors and people with preexisting illnesses like heart or respiratory disease.
It's a smart plan to get vaccinated early, seeing as it takes two weeks for the shot to take full effectiveness, Dias says. Most people in the city haven't started sniffling yet, she says. "Public Health Ontario is reporting low levels of influenza at the moment."
Season start unpredictable
The timing of the flu season is very unpredictable and can vary from year to year, beginning as early as October and ending as late as May. In Canada, the bulk of cases generally occur between November and April, with most during a 10- to 16-week period beginning in December.
The components that make up the vaccine have already been produced, and were determined by a scientific group in the World Health Organization, which met back in February.
Last month, GSK, Canada's largest flu vaccine supplier, said it was unable to complete its full vaccine order for the coming season and would be just under two million doses short.
The company, formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline, was under contract to provide nearly 6.4 million doses, which represents 53 per cent of Canada's total purchase of about 12 million doses.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, however, said it had found a replacement supply from other manufacturers that share the supply contract and promised that there will be no shortage of vaccine for the upcoming flu season.
Vaccine components same as last year
It's impossible to say exactly what strains of the flu will circulate season to season, or how severe it will be one year compared to the last, Dias says. Instead, researchers make a scientific "best guess" when designing the vaccine.
This year, scientists are predicting similar strains as the ones from last year, meaning that the vaccine components will also be the same as last year.
The vaccine that's been produced for this flu season is to protect against:
- An A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
- An A/Texas/50/2012 (H3N2)-like virus;
- A B/Massachusetts/2/2012-like virus.
Dr. Kevin Katz, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at Toronto's North York General Hospital, says he believes there was a good vaccine match last year with the strain that circulated, and the fact that authorities didn't change the components this year is a good indication that the previous strains didn't shift in the middle of the season.
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