As the old year melted into the new, and the snow and cold arrived at last, an elusive and mysterious illness made its home deep inside my body.
Soon, the days and nights all rolled into one incomprehensible sludge of work and sleep, and the concepts of day and night, exercise and fresh air, became utterly meaningless.
After several days in purgatory, a visitor broached my sick den with a dog, and informed me the small pup could barely make it to my door for all the snow.
I did a slow count on my fingers, and realized it had been four days since I opened the door to the outside world. I was only vaguely aware of winter’s revenge outside—more so of how little it affected me and my life plans in my current state.
It’s funny, but maybe not in a comical way, how we take our health for granted until it’s gone.
I may have been lonely, but I was far from alone in my new year affliction—around the same time I was huddled over a laptop in my living room, producing last week’s Pique in a cold sweat with a big fuzzy blanket wrapped around my shoulders, B.C.’s health minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry were speaking at a press conference in Vancouver.
At the press conference, Henry and Dix said B.C. broke provincial hospitalization records the week prior, with 10,435 people in hospital as COVID and flu season peaked.
The previous record, 10,260, was set Jan. 4 last year.
Dix and Henry said cases of Influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have been “steadily increasing over the last few weeks.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet, and we will continue to see high rates of influenza and RSV for the next few weeks,” Henry said.
As for COVID, cases were declining, but increased over the holidays, particularly in adults, Henry said, adding that as of early January, 219 people were in hospital with COVID and 26 people were in intensive care.
B.C. no longer tests for or tracks COVID-19 to the degree it did during the height of the pandemic. According to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), testing is only recommended when a positive or negative result will inform decisions about treatment or care—for example, people at risk of more severe disease, people who are hospitalized, or people who are pregnant.
“Most people are not tested for respiratory symptoms, therefore, we don’t have case numbers as we did in earlier phases of the pandemic,” a VCH spokesperson said.
“The BCCDC continues to do disease surveillance via several methods, including lab results from the groups mentioned above, and wastewater data, which combined, provide a very good picture of transmission rates throughout the province. However, please note this data cannot be compared to case numbers collected in 2020, 2021, and 2022.”
Like the rest of the country, Whistler is seeing an increase in upper respiratory tract illness, influenza-like illness, COVID, and group-A strep infections, said Dr. Karin Kausky, vice chair of the Whistler 360 Health Collaborative Society, in an email.
“Also, interestingly, we’re seeing a lot of people with prolonged viral illness that are contracting secondary bacterial infections in the second, third week of illness. Plus, all the usual injuries of the season, and—in the last few days—cold-related injuries,” Kausky said.
Whistler’s younger population, relatively speaking, means it is less likely to require hospital resources, and the advice for most is to stay home and rest if they are sick, Kausky said—but if you are really unwell, or your condition is worsening, “please come in,” she said.
“Don’t hesitate to seek care if you need it—I think the overcrowding media headlines are putting some people off seeking care when they should be seeking care.”
In a more general sense, Whistler is starting 2024 on a positive, health-care wise, with the news that Creekside Health added four new family physicians last year, with two more on the way.
Whistler 360, meanwhile, is adding another doctor of its own next month, bringing its total to 11 (full-time equivalent).
“We have connected over 2,000 patients with a provider, and are actively connecting more. In 2023, we had over 38,000 appointments (both attached and unattached patients), which was a 31-per-cent increase over 2022,” said W360 chair Carol Leacy, in an email.
But the local health-care non-profit is getting tight on space, Leacy added.
“We are working on changing our work practices and extending hours to try to fit more providers in,” she said. “We would love to make some progress on team-based care (i.e. adding a nurse into practice), but lack of clinic space is going to be a challenge with that.”
W360 is still taking on new patients, so anyone still in need of a family doctor in Whistler should sign up for the patient registry at whistler360health.org.
The non-profit also encourages existing patients to sign up for the new online patient portal, where they can book appointments, get test results, and find other info.
