Holiday travellers bring flu back to Yukon

Yukon's Chief Medical Officer of Health says there have been 16 confirmed cases of influenza in the territorysince the beginning of December.

Dr. Brendan Hanley says there are many more, unreported, cases out there butthe numbersin the territory so farare similar to this time last year.

"Overall, if we look at this time last year, it's about the same level of flu activity as we had this time last year," he said. "It's just that this year, I think it's come on in a shorter period of time, in that second half of December, and it is mainly a different virus."

He says most of the current cases in the Yukon have been brought here by people returning from Christmas holidays.

Hanley says it appears the prominent strain of the flu this season is H1N1.

Hanley says it's not too late to get the flu vaccine.He encourages peopleto get the flu shot if they haven't already done so.