Number of Canadians in emergency rooms for pneumonia doubled: just-released data – CTV

September 11, 2025

TORONTO — The number of emergency department visits for pneumonia more than doubled last fall over the previous year, the Canadian Institute for Health Information says.

The new data released Thursday said young people between five and 19 years old were the hardest hit.

“This is actually the largest increase in pneumonia-related emergency department visits that we’ve seen post-COVID,” said Tanya Khan, CIHI’s manager of hospital data advancement and engagement, in an interview.

Pneumonia didn’t make the top 10 list of reasons for visiting the ER in 2023-24 but shot up to No. 3 — after abdominal and pelvic pain and throat and chest pain — in 2024-25, Khan said.

Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Toronto, said the CIHI numbers likely reflect an influx of patients with atypical pneumonia — known as walking pneumonia — during last year’s respiratory illness season.

Walking pneumonia usually causes milder symptoms than other types of pneumonia, including cough, fever and fatigue.

“A lot of people with this kind of pneumonia can get better on their own,” Banerji said.

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/er-visits-for-pneumonia-doubled-last-fall-cihi-data-shows/