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Officials ready to attack flu |
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Written by Dave Mabell
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Thursday, October 29 2009, 9:52 PM |
School attendance is down, vaccination numbers are up — and southern Alberta health officials are ready to launch an all-out attack on the H1N1 flu virus next week.
Clinics will run five days a week — Tuesday through Saturday — in Lethbridge and four other southern Alberta communities, officials confirmed Thursday. They’re expected to continue on that schedule for for several weeks, providing public response remains high.
Pharmacists, doctors’ offices and campus health services are expected to become part of the pandemic response as well. But Vivien Suttorp, southern Alberta’s medical officer of health, says it’s too soon to say when those health-care providers will start receiving the H11 vaccine.
Suttorp reported more than 3,400 men, women and children were immunized Wednesday, as officials ramped up service at the Lethbridge Exhibition. That includes smaller clinics held at Fort Macleod and Warner, officials said, as well as more than 330 health-care workers who received the vaccine during a special clinic.
“We’re very pleased by the response we’ve had from the public,” Suttorp said. “Next week, we’ll have our full-blown clinics.”
They’ll run from noon to 7 p.m. in Lethbridge, Taber and Pincher Creek, starting a half-hour later in Brooks and Medicine Hat. On Saturday, clinics will open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in all five locations.
“We know people are very eager to get the vaccine,” she added.
High absentee levels at many schools could be a factor in that eagerness. By Thursday, she said at least 54 schools across southern Alberta had reported more than 10 per cent of their students were away — mostly due to H1N1 flu — with rates at some schools up to 30 per cent.
Those numbers might not reflect the actual number of ill students, she cautioned.
“They could also be children whose parents don’t want them exposed” to the virus.
No further clinics are planned in smaller centres over the next few weeks, putting more nurses on the front lines at the five major clinics. But some rural doctors may wish to provide vaccinations, Suttorp said.
“We’re currently working with our physician partners,” determining their interest and any training their staff may require. “That’s part of our pandemic plan.”
Qualified pharmacists may also offer H1N1 vaccinations soon, though Suttorp was unable to predict when that will begin. On-site clinics are also expected at most universities and colleges, but Alberta Health Services officials have offered no launch date.
Suttorp expressed her appreciation of nurses and support staff who’ve handled the stresses and challenges of the clinics’ start-up weeks. They’ll be putting in even more hours in the weeks to come, she predicted.
“Everybody in public health across this province has been really working hard,” she said. That includes doctors’ clinics, emergency room staff and hospital personnel, Suttorp noted.
“They have a huge passion for public health.”
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