Influenza
Influenza, or the flu is a common, infectious respiratory disease that begins in your nose and throat. It is highly contagious and spreads rapidly from person to person. The flu affects 10-25% of Canadians each year. While the majority who become sick will recover, the flu results in an average of 20,000 hospitalizations and 4,000 deaths in Canada each year.
Pandemic flu
Pandemic flu is a type of influenza that occurs every few decades and which spreads rapidly to affect most countries and regions around the world. The symptoms of pandemic flu are similar to those of ‘ordinary’ flu, but are usually more severe. A flu pandemic occurs in waves several months apart, with each wave lasting about two to three months. It is likely that pandemic flu will affect far more people than ‘ordinary’ flu. Around a quarter of the population may be affected by the end of the pandemic.
Symptoms—Do You Have a Cold or the Flu?
How Flu Spreads
- When people who have the flu speak, cough or sneeze, they spray tiny droplets in the air. Other people breathe in these droplets, or get them in their eyes, and catch the flu.
- When a person with the flu touches their eyes, mouth or nose, then touches another person, they can pass along flu germs. If you have flu germs on your hands and you touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, you can get infected with the flu.
- If a person with the flu coughs or sneezes on something (a tissue, a door handle), and you touch that thing, then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, you can get infected with the flu.
The Expected Impact of a Pandemic Flu in Canada
Just as Public Health Agencies do not know when the next pandemic wave will strike, they cannot predict its severity. That will depend on how easily the flu strain spreads, which groups of people are affected, and how effectively people are able to respond. Assuming the pandemic is moderately severe, and without a pandemic vaccine, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) estimates between 15 and 35 percent of Canadians could become ill, 34,000 to 138,000 individuals may need to be hospitalized; and between 11,000 and 58,000 deaths could occur.
Pandemic Influenza: Information You Need to Know [PDF]
*This content is adapted from information provided by the Public Health Agency
of Canada