More ’flu shot clinics slated

With more and more cases of influenza reported each day, the Northwestern Health Unit is seeing a high demand for vaccinations in the Kenora-Rainy River districts.
Public health nurse Cindy McKinnon said Monday that while the health unit initially was going to wrap up its ’flu shot clinics Dec. 4 (a date later extended to Dec. 9), they now will continue to hold them at the health unit office on Scott Street for the rest of this week and on Dec. 22-23 before taking a break into the new year.
“[The demand] is in direct response to the cases reported in Canada and North America, in general,” McKinnon noted. “We have had confirmed cases in the area, too.
“We’ve still been able to access the vaccine, but we didn’t get quite as much as wanted with the last order,” she said, adding they’ll get 90 percent of that order.
“We’re hoping we have adequate supplies. It looks good at this point,” she remarked.
McKinnon noted as of Dec. 12, the health unit had distributed 33,595 doses in its catchment area—about 4,000 more than this time last year.
Some 11,587 of those vaccine doses have been distributed in Fort Frances, Rainy River, Emo, and Atikokan.
These figures refer to the number of vaccines given out to various health agencies, including clinics, general practitioners, rest homes, and health care facilities.
The health unit itself has administered a total of 11,328 doses in its catchment area. In the district, including Atikokan, it’s administered 3,817.
  For more information on ’flu shots, or to make an appointment for a clinic this week or on Dec. 22-23, contact the health unit at 274-9827. It usually is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
As reported in last week’s Times, Dr. Pete Sarsfield, CEO and medical officer of health for the Northwestern Health Unit, said the strain of vaccine currently being administered will provide some protection against the types of influenza now making their way across North America.
It’s expected that 75 percent of all illnesses due to ’flu this season will be of the A Fujian strain while the other 25 is the A Panama—the latter of which the vaccine contains.
But Dr. Sarsfield noted A Panama and A Fujian are, in fact, related and therefore about 50 percent of the people—assuming they’re not in a high-risk group—who got the vaccine this year will not get the ’flu if exposed to it while the other half only will experience minor symptoms.
He also stressed the vaccine is “extremely safe,” and the great majority of those who receive it will not get sick.
Some may experience a soreness in the arm they got their shot in, or mild nausea for a day or two afterwards.