As the second wave of swine flu rolls across the country, the virus appears to be hitting some age groups harder than others.

According a recent report from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, those particularly impacted are people ages two to 19, who make up about 84.5 per cent of all specimens that have tested positive for the H1N1 virus.

Of the 1,120 cases of people ages 10 to 19, 46 per cent tested positive for the virus; of the 496 cases of people aged two to nine, 38.4 per cent tested positive.

Additionally, of the 1,145 cases in people ages 20 to 39, 25.6 per cent tested positive for the virus.

In B.C., there have been 199 hospitalizations and 12 deaths due to lab-confirmed H1N1 to date in the province.

Of those hospitalized, 25 per cent were between the ages of two and 19, 32 per cent were between 20 and 39, and 30 per cent were between 40 and 64.

Six per cent were under the age of two and eight per cent were over the age of 64.

Within the Interior Health Authority, there have been 31 hospitalizations and three deaths due to the swine-flu pandemic that was first detected in Mexico in April.

IHA senior health officer Paul Hasselback said the Interior is still in the upswing of the H1N1 flu season and expects the virus to take about 12 weeks to go through the region.

“This is a hot spot as we started seeing it earlier than the rest of Canada,” Hasselback told KTW.

“Our biggest concern is that it causes complications in some groups.”

He said the very young — those under five years of age and especially those under two — people with underlying medical conditions, women who are pregnant and people who live in rural and aboriginal communities have been proven to be at the greatest risk for complications if they contract the virus.

Although physicians are only testing those with complications, there are tracking indicators the health authority is using, including doctor visits, prescribing medications and school-absentee rates.

“We have seen this right across the Interior,” Hasselback said of absentee rates of more than 10 per cent.

“There’s no area of the Interior that hasn’t been affected by H1N1 in some fashion.”

In Kamloops, elementary student-absentee rates soared this past week, reaching as high as 27 per cent at Ralph Bell elementary.

Other schools with more than 10 per cent of its students absent as of Wednesday were Aberdeen (23 per cent), R.L. Clemitson (18 per cent), Savona (20 per cent), McGowan Park (13 per cent), Parkcrest (14 per cent), Westmount (14 per cent), George Hilliard (15 per cent), Kay Bingham (14 per cent), Juniper Ridge (12 per cent), Arthur Hatton (15 per cent) and David Thompson (12 per cent).

Some secondary schools are also showing higher absentee rates, such as Barrier (21 per cent), Clearwater (18 per cent), Chase (10 per cent) and Sa-Hali (6 per cent).

“Not all of these are influenza-related,” said district superintendent Terry Sullivan. “Some parents are keeping their children home . . . but it’s important we continue to monitor very closely.”

He said the district is doing everything it can to try to reduce the risk of spreading the virus and expects the higher absentee rates to last for a couple more weeks as H1N1 works its way through the schools.

Despite the rising rates, Sullivan said the district will only close schools if it cannot adequately staff them.

“We’ve been doing everything in the last few months to prepare, like cross-training staff in the event that we have illnesses,” he said.

“If we start closing schools, it’s going to start creating a whole bunch of trickle-down effects in the system.”

Despite the recent spike in elementary students and staff staying home with flu-like symptoms, Thompson Rivers University appears to be relatively unaffected by the virus.

Christopher Seguin, TRU vice-president advancement, said the university has also been watching its absentee rates but, so far, there’s been nothing out of the ordinary.

“We’re right about where we usually are with flu and absences,” Seguin said, noting the university’s absentee rate averages around 10 per cent.

“We had expected to see large spikes, but we’re not at this time.”

At TRU, he said, there has been a lot of preparation and education surrounding the H1N1 virus, including information on the virus, installing hand sanitizers in all public centres and urging people to stay home if they feel sick.

“I think they’re listening, but we’re monitoring the situation very closely.”