By SooToday.com Staff
SooToday.com
Monday, November 02, 2009

NEWS RELEASE

ALGOMA PUBLIC HEALTH

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(November 2, 2009) - Only high-risk groups in Ontario are eligible for H1N1 vaccine because of a temporary shortage.

A few small northern health units, including Algoma, were initially provided proportionately more vaccine because of concerns of transportation in weather that may cause problems at this time of year.

Even if all our high-risk people came forward to get the vaccine, we would probably have a slight excess of vaccine.

We have very much intensified efforts to encourage high-risk people to come forward but because, as Dr. King says, it would be wrong to sit on vaccine, we will still start to pilot the vaccine into a few schools this week as planned.

Although most of this week’s clinics were booked for high-risk we had opened the bookings toward the end of the week to general bookings which would have allowed some lower-risk bookings as well as the high-risk.

Because of our small excess of vaccine we can honour those bookings.

We are, at the same time, opening more spaces this week for anyone in the high-risk groups who might not have been booked yet.

We will assess our vaccine situation and if we have vaccine left next week, we will continue to use it until it runs out.

In this way, even if weather became an issue for rapid transport of vaccine once it is available again, we may have a start on the rest of the population.

We will honour all bookings we have made with the reality that if we do run short of vaccine, we will notify the community that we do not have the vaccine and that booked clinics would have to be cancelled but that will not happen at this time.

Vaccinating others with the small excess vaccine we expect to have will achieve two things.

It protects those individuals but once these individuals are protected, it will not be possible for them to spread it to others.

It is well known that influenza will circulate rapidly amongst children and then on to others including the high risk so vaccinating children contributes to reduced transmission to others.

Reminder - high risk groups are:

- People under 65 with chronic conditions.

- Pregnant women.

- Children six months to under five years of age.

- People living in remote or isolated communities.

- Health care workers.

- Household contacts and care providers of persons at high risk who cannot be immunized or may not respond to vaccines.

Call for appointments: 541-2332 or 1-800-469-2449.

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