N.B. health officials among first to get swine ’flu vaccine

FREDERICTON—For Ginette Pellerin, who was among the first in Canada to receive the swine ’flu vaccination, a needle in the arm yesterday was a relatively harmless experience.
“It was no pain at all,” said Pellerin, the director of public health in Miramichi, N.B.

“It’s the exact same thing as a regular ’flu shot . . . you receive your immunization, wait 15 minutes, and you’re done.”
New Brunswick took the lead on the roll-out of the immunization program Wednesday when it began giving shots to some health-care workers assigned to administer the vaccination to the public.
Pellerin is one of hundreds of people who will help run swine ’flu immunization clinics scheduled to open Monday.
“It all has to do with primary prevention, so it’s something that public health is used to doing, but it’s on a very grand scale,” she noted.
Aboriginals, health-care workers, and school-aged children are considered to be a priority for the vaccination.
“Consistently, First Nations and aboriginal people have contributed around 12-15 percent of the mortality of any given country, despite often being one-three percent of the population,” said Dr. Paul Van Buynder, New Brunswick’s deputy chief medical officer of health.
And while he urged everyone to get the vaccine, he said it was not a guarantee that people would not get sick.
“Influenza vaccination of all types including pandemic does not totally prevent you from exposure to the disease or infection,” he warned.
“But it will make sure that if you are infected, you will have a much milder case of the disease.”
The province has received more than 83,000 of 600,000 doses ordered.
Health-care workers in the rest of the country will begin getting their vaccinations next week, with aboriginals, children, and people with chronic conditions next on the list.
Manitoba will set up clinics Monday in targeted areas to pre-schoolers, aboriginals, and people with chronic medical conditions.
It also plans to fly in teams of health professionals to remote reserves in the north that were hard hit last spring during the first wave of the ’flu.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, health officials said the public launch of their swine ’flu vaccination program Monday would force the suspension of more routine services, including pre-natal education, school immunizations, and breastfeeding support groups.
Nova Scotia’s health minister said yesterday that contingency plans are in place in that province if people sick with swine ’flu jam the province’s already-clogged emergency rooms.
Every district health authority has worst-case scenario plans that could include cancelling elective surgeries and other measures, Maureen MacDonald said.
“Cape Breton, for example, has in their plan worst-case scenario having to move people out of hospital beds into hotel rooms,” she noted.
The province likely will begin inoculations next Tuesday, with health-care workers among the first to get the shots.
Ontario will begin offering the vaccine Monday to certain groups that are more vulnerable to contracting swine ’flu: adults under the age of 65 with chronic conditions, health-care workers, caregivers for high-risk groups, people living in remote and isolated communities, pregnant women, and healthy children aged six months to five years.
Quebec and Alberta will begin their inoculation programs Monday.
British Columbia will launch its program early next week for women who are more than 20 weeks’ pregnant, people under 65 who have chronic health conditions, and members of the First Nations.
All the provinces are launching ad campaigns to provide details of when and where clinics will be held for the general public.
The roll-out of the vaccine in New Brunswick came just as the province reported its fourth hospitalized swine ’flu case.
Dr. Eilish Cleary, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said a woman in her 50s is in intensive care, but would not provide more information about her condition.