As H3N2 spreads, can you still get your flu shot before holiday gatherings?

The rate of flu hospitalization in Canada has nearly doubled compared to the previous week of available data, with infections now up almost 30 per cent, Health Canada data shows.

As Canadians gather for the holidays this week, a new strain of influenza is threatening to play spoilsport. But experts say there are still many ways you can protect yourself and your loved ones from H3N2 and its new subclade K strain.

The rate of hospitalization from influenza in Canada has nearly doubled compared to the previous week of available data, with infections now up almost 30 per cent, Health Canada’s latest figures show.

For the week ending Dec. 13, Canada saw 11,646 new cases of flu being detected, which means 27.7 per cent of all the tests conducted in the country came out positive.

“It’s not too late to get a flu shot this year,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital.

A mutation in the new strain may be allowing the virus to slip past our defences in some cases, said Dr. Fahad Razak, internal medicine physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto.

“Our vaccines do protect against it, but over the course of the summer, there was some additional mutations in one of the branches of this version called subclade K. And those mutations probably are allowing the virus to have some ability to evade our immune protections,” Razak said.

Despite the mutations, however, the vaccine remains your best bet against the virus, he said.

The United Kingdom is ahead of Canada in the flu season and may give a good indication to how the virus is responding to vaccines, Razak said.