It's been a bad season for the flu and gastro-intestinal viruses in our region, in fact health officials say they're dealing with more cases than they've ever seen before.
On Thursday, signs could be seen on the front doors at Grove Park in Barrie. Inside, hand sanitizers are posted everywhere, as the nursing home deals with a norovirus outbreak. Officials say the outbreak started on Sunday with six cases; ballooned to 16 on Tuesday and has since decreased to 10.
“We encourage families to stay away, make their visits brief (and) only visit that specific person,” says Paul Taylor, administrator at Grove Park. “We’re discouraging residents from visiting residents in other home areas and those kinds of things.”
Hospitals in Meaford and Owen Sound are both dealing with unconfirmed norovirus outbreaks. The Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit says there are four enteric outbreaks across the region, but say they still don't know exactly what they're dealing with.
“This season we had over 400 cases of the flu and over 40 outbreaks and that’s the most we have ever had,” says Dr. Colin Lee, the Medical Health Officer for Simcoe and Muskoka. “The influenza-a virus that circulated, mutated in the last number of months such that it did not match the vaccines strain.”
Health officials say they cannot predict what kind of flu season will come next year, but Lee says he is optimistic the vaccines will get better over time.
