Flu claims first life in New Brunswick

The flu has claimed its first life in New Brunswick this season, says a public health official.

The patient died in the Fredericton area in the past few days,saidDr. Na-Koshie Lamptey, the regional medical officer of health.

"I do know of one death that will show up in the statistics this Friday related to an outbreak," she said.

Fredericton's Pine Grove Nursing Home is currently closed to the public due to an influenza outbreak.

Lamptey would not say if the victim was one of the 70 residents at the nursing home.

Pine Grove administrator Cheryl Wiggins declined todiscuss any specifics, citing privacy concerns.

40 confirmed cases, 20 hospitalizations

New Brunswick has had40 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases, as of Jan. 3, about halfway into the flu season.

Of those, 20 resulted in hospitalizations.

"Influenza activity is beginning to increase as we enter the new year," said Lamptey. "But right now, we have about the same number of cases reported up to January 4th of this year as we did last year."

"This strain is aH3N2strain of Influenza A. It's the most common strain that we're seeing in those cases that were lab confirmed," she said.

"It is a virus that we've seen in years before that tends to cause more illness in elderly people. So we can predict that those over 65 are going to be heavily affected by this virus."

Health officials are currently looking into whether some of the hospitalized patients had received the flu shot, said Lamptey.

Some other provinces, such as Nova Scotia and Ontario, are dealing with a number of outbreaks, while British Columbia is at a 10-year high in terms of the number of patients being hospitalized with the flu.

Health Minister VictorBoudreausays New Brunswick is prepared.

"It's a season where there's no question that our hospitals tend to swell up a bit. There's a lot of people that present themselves at the ER because of the flu," said Boudreau.

It's a regular, routine flu season.- Health Minister Victor Boudreau

But so far, "it's a regular, routine flu season," he said.

At Pine Grove,staff members are taking precautions to protect residents from further spread of the virus.

"They're gowning up, gloves, masksand so on. And using isolation in hopes that we can put an end to this fairly shortly," said Wiggins.

Although immediate family members are encouraged not to visit, they will be allowed in if they are also gowned, gloved and masked, she said.

The visiting restrictions at the nursing home, located on Woodstock Road, will remain in place until further notice,said Wiggins.

"We are certainly hopeful that we can reopen our doors soon, but we are going to take it one day at a time."