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By Tanner Smith

Health

AHS wants Albertans to stay healthy this holiday season

Dec 8, 2022 | 4:33 PM

With the holiday season coming up and children’s medication in demand, Alberta Health Services wants to remind Albertans to stay happy and healthy to finish off this year.

Doctor Jack Pang, Medical Officer of Health with Alberta Health Services North Zone, says taking extra steps to protect your family from contracting these diseases is just as important as taking care of them when they do get sick.

” For the little ones, definitely if your child is sick with these respiratory symptoms, keeping them home and not sending them to day-care or school, is a great way to prevent further spread of these pathogens within those areas where we know there’s a lot of interactions between children.”

Pang adds taking steps to prevent your family from contracting these viruses is crucial, however, when you do get sick the best thing you can do for your family or little ones is take care of yourself.

“The best thing to do is take care of yourself first, that goes for everyone, including these parents that you mention. Take care of yourself, get the rest you need, take time off from work, rest, recover, make sure you’re well first because you need to be well to take care of those others that you care about.”

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Even though the diseases on the rise currently are minor illnesses, they can turn into something more serious if not treated properly, leading to infections like bronchitis and pneumonia.

Pang says that is why he doesn’t recommend the idea of ‘contracting an illness to rebuild your immune system after two years of being inside. This is due to the risk of it becoming something more serious, and then adding more pressure to an already strained medical system.

” I understand that rationale that some people have in terms of wanting to have that natural infection to be able to train their immune system, but at the same time though, I would personally not recommend that because by doing that you’re essentially contributing to the spread of the certain pathogen.”

AHS adds that immunization is still your best defence against these illnesses, click here, or call Healthlink at 811 to book or learn more about Influenza, and COVID-19 vaccination.