Manitoba Health and Healthy Living is reporting 16 additional confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, this brings the Manitoba total to 56 reported laboratory-confirmed cases. Manitoba Public Health is currently following up on these latest cases.
The influenza outbreak is provincewide and more cases are expected in communities across Manitoba. Most Manitobans who become ill are experiencing relatively mild cases of influenza illness and have not required hospitalization. Manitoba has experienced an increased concentration of patients with severe respiratory illness admitted to intensive care units, which is higher in number than previous influenza outbreaks.
If you’re sick with a respiratory illness and you need medical care, your health-care provider will treat you and assess whether you need testing. Testing for viruses does not change the treatment of a viral respiratory illness. Doctors and health-care providers are expected to make flu treatment decisions without influenza test results as they have been trained to diagnose influenza and other viral illnesses. They also have current guidelines for practice in this situation.
Manitoba is fully responding to the H1N1 situation across the system; in Winnipeg, hospital visitors are asked to restrict their visits to patients in hospital and follow existing guidelines in order to protect both patients and visitors from the spread of infection.
The provincial government is co-ordinating a centralized dispatch of air ambulances to help better oversee air ambulance traffic and steps are being taken to ensure incoming patients are processed quickly once they arrive in a receiving community such as Winnipeg. The number of air ambulance calls is within the normal range for this time of year.
The provincial government has provided surgical masks, N95 respirators and anti-virals to assist the federal government in northern Manitoba. Additional personal protective equipment such as gloves and gowns will also be made available as requested by the federal government.
The provincial government has already provided additional doctors through the Northern Medical Unit.
