First flu death of the season in Alberta amid warnings about potentially tough months ahead

Alberta has marked the province's first influenza death of this year's flu season, after last year's season proved the deadliest in more than a decade.

The province's respiratory virus dashboard shows a person in their 60s living in the central zone has died due to influenza. During the 2024-2025 flu season, 237 Albertans died due to influenza, with more than 3,700 people hospitalized.

The timing of this year's first influenza death is on par with what health officials might see in other years, said Dr. James Talbot, Alberta's former chief medical officer of health.

"We're well and truly into the beginning of influenza season," said Talbot. So far, more than 100 people in Alberta have been hospitalized with influenza this season, with eight patients treated in intensive care.Some countries have already reported seeing an early start to flu season with increased caseloads, such as the U.K. where the National Health Service warned at the end of October cases were three times higher than the same time the previous year.Countries across the Southern Hemisphere dealt with a nastier flu season, which Talbot says could also be the case in Canada, where he expects a significant influenza season that would strain the health care system. "In Alberta, we run our hospitals and our emergency departments at about 100 per cent all the time," said Talbot. "And that means that it doesn't take many respiratory cases — that would include both flu and COVID — to put the emergency departments and hospitals in general under a lot of stress."

It comes as some infectious disease specialists are warning of a potentially tough flu season thanks to an evolving strain of H3N2 that might be incongruent with the make-up of this year's flu vaccine.

That can sometimes happen, says Dr. Joan Robinson, a pediatric infectious diseases physician with Stollery Children's Hospital.

She says because the vaccines are developed months in advance, some years they may not perfectly match the strains that ends up circulating. But she still recommends getting this flu shot. "It is still worth getting the vaccine because we do think that even though the response might not be perfect, you still are likely to be a lit less likely to get influenza, and less likely to get severe disease," said Robinson. Those severe outcomes might be seen more often among seniors or people with underlying conditions, but those are not the only cohorts who should get vaccinated, Robinson said.

"Flu is one of those horrible diseases where you get a cold but you feel like you got run over by a truck," said Robinson. "So certainly it's worth doing what you can to prevent it."

According to provincial data, about half a million Albertans have rolled up their sleeves for a flu shot this season, representing more than 10 per cent of the province's population.

That is about the halfway mark to last year's total flu vaccine uptake, which saw the lowest percentage since the 2009-2010 season.

The current positivity rate for influenza is higher in Alberta than the national average: more than three per cent in Alberta compared to the just under two per cent nationwide reported in federal data Friday.

Robinson says that does not necessarily mean Alberta is seeing more cases, but could be that more people exhibiting flu-like symptoms are being tested for influenza.

COVID-19 remains a higher concern when it comes to respiratory viruses, according to Dr. Talbot, because of greater associated risks of hospitalization and death. Provincial data shows 36 COVID-19 deaths so far this season, with two of those in the latest week of reporting from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1.

This year, the province is charging most Albertans for the COVID-19 vaccine, save for health-care workers, continuing care home residents, people who are homeless and those who are immunocompromised or who have underlying medical conditions.