Elderly people in Ontario, long-term care residents, hospital staff and patients will be able to get flu shots starting this week.
Vaccinations will be open to everyone else in the state for six months or longer on October 27th.
Most other states and territories are expected to launch flu shot programs in mid-October.
Dr. Netisha Gupta of the Pulmonary Health Foundation says that young children, the elderly, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (known as COPD) are at a high risk of severe illnesses caused by the flu, particularly.
Although the flu vaccine can reduce the risk of getting sick, she says it is most effective in creating milder infections and preventing hospitalizations.
Gupta says it takes about two weeks for its protection to settle after it has acquired the shot.
Vaccines prevent serious consequences by preparing the immune system to recognize and fight the virus when it appears, she said.
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“You don't have a serious response because your body already knows how to react. So you don't end up in the hospital, so you don't have pneumonia,” Gupta said.
Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious disease expert and medical microbiologist at Montreal Children's Hospital, said the vaccine reduces the need for doctor visits or hospitalizations by about half.
Papenburg, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill University, was the co-lead author of a recent study examining people under the age of 16 who were hospitalized or died of influenza in Canada between 2004 and 2022.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in July, found that 80 children and young people died during that period and 12,887 hospitalized.
More than half of the children who died were under the age of five.
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“We know that younger ages are a risk factor for more severe flu diseases. Some know that they don't have much immunity because they are not exposed to flu infections,” Papenburg said.
“They are also more vulnerable, especially in younger babies, due to their smaller airway size.”
About three-quarters of the children who died had underlying chronic conditions, Papenburg said.
Only one in four patients in this study was vaccinated.
“Fortunately, influenza mortality is rare in children, but on the other side, that is also potentially preventable,” he said.
“One of the takeaway messages from this study is that the flu is not just a mild cold-like illness, but can cause serious complications that could lead to hospitalization.
This study used data from the Impact Surveillance Network, which includes 12 Canadian Children's Hospitals.
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