Two more British Columbians died of H1N1 influenza in the last week, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. Thirty-three persons were hospitalized with the disease, a 42 percent increase in one week over the previous total from last spring to October 13.

According to the B.C. CDC surveillance update dated October 19, both deaths were reported by the Fraser Health Authority.

Twelve new hospitalizations were reported by Vancouver Coastal Health, 13 by Fraser Health, 6 by Interior Health, and 2 by Vancouver Island Health. Only Northern Health had no new hospitalizations.

Total H1N1 deaths in B.C. are now 9, and total hospitalizations are 111. Over 600 lab-confirmed cases were reported for the week ending October 8, but that fell to about 100 in the following week. Very few confirmed cases have required hospitalization.

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.