Saturday, 21 November 2009

City Mouse vs. Country Mouse -2

In covering H1N1 in Muskoka, there are differences in Swine flu and its spread within cities and towns. Each LHIN is reporting some developments, according to their monthly NSM LHIN pH1N1 updates. 

 City Mouse: 
 In Ontario, the per cent of influenza tests positive for H1N1 last week was 33 %, which was lower than the 45 % positive observed in the previous week. Some jurisdictions have reported 50% rates in Ontario.
Country Mouse:
Simcoe Muskoka reported 29% positive H1N1 laboratory tests, which increased for the fifth consecutive week last week, which is up from 21 per cent from the previous week.
Local Simcoe Muskoka Emergency Departments are reported a 30 to 50 per cent increase in visits related to flu-like symptoms compared with the previous year. NSM LHIN told us last week that 1 in 4 Muskoka schools reported absenteeism of 10 per cent, with some as much as 50%. For us in Muskoka, things are different than the city, with the spread on a different scale and  one to two week delayed timeline. 

LNSM LHIN 12  has distributed almost 38,000 doses to family doctors, hospitals, long term care homes and Emergency Medical Services; and have vaccinated almost 10,000 people in public health pH1N1 clinics as of the end of November 5, 2009. 


North Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit has received over 107,000 doses of adjuvanted and unadjuvanted H1N1 vaccine. It is now available for all who want to have it. There are about 15,000 doses on hand for use at these clinics, and for distribution to other partners this week. Further shipments of up to 32,000 doses could be arriving this week.



Provincially, as of Nov. 17th, CBC.ca says that Ontario has had: 

  • 68 lab-confirmed H1N1 deaths since April
  • 197 people are in hospital
  • 75 are in intensive care. 
--Ontario Ministry of Health, spokesman David Jensen, Monday, November 16th. 

There were 16,122 respiratory, fever-related, or H1N1 calls to Telehealth during the weeklong period of Nov. 5-12. This is a rise in calls: Oct. 29-Nov. 5, when there were 14,177 H1N1-related calls to Telehealth.

 Telehealth Ontario  - Public Information - MOHLTC

 Telehealth Ontario is a free, confidential telephone service you can call to get health advice or general health information
Get the facts:

2 comments:

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Jenn: Seems like it is pretty bad up there.

Jenn Jilks said...

I don't think it is any different than elsewhere, actually, Yogi! The seasonal flu is bad, too. Have you ever sat in a meeting with people coughing?! Of course, these people are going to be fine. Most seem to have flu, but without the lung bacterial infections that those in hospital have. I think that the H1N1 has a bad rep for those who have succumbed, but most find it reacts like a seasonal flu.