With 20 of BC’s 78 serious, confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza and two of the province’s 14 dead the Interior Health Authority is poised to receive its share of the vaccine.
Limited quantities of the vaccine will be available in physicians’ offices starting on Monday, Oct. 26. and for the first two weeks, the IHA is urging physicians to use it on people in highest-risk groups. These include pregnant women in the second half of their pregnancies, people under 65 with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, children under five, people in rural or remote communities, health care workers involved in pandemic response, care providers for infants and people who have compromised immune systems.
“Eventually, there will be enough vaccine for all who want it,” says an update for physicians issued on Thursday by Dr. Andrew Larder, IHA’s Senior Medical Health Officer.
New supplies of the vaccine are expected to be available for healthy children aged 6-18, police, firefighters, poultry and swine workers, healthy adults between 19 snd 64 and adults over 65 in about two or three weeks.
Meanwhile, the regular seasonal flu vaccinations are set to begin this week with clinics for seniors at the Community Centre on Oct. 23 and Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
