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More eligible for flu shots |
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Written by Lethbridge Herald & The Canadian Press
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Tuesday, November 10 2009, 8:53 PM |
Still more southern Albertans will be eligible to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine this week.
Starting Thursday, children aged 10 to 17 as well as adults from 55 to 64 — and living with a chronic condition — will be immunized at clinics in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Then on Friday, that group will include anyone aged 45 to 64.
Pregnant women, caregivers of infants and at-risk children under 10 are already being offered the shots. The Lethbridge clinic, at the West Pavilion at Exhibition Park, will continue to welcome those groups from 1 to 4 p.m. today.
Alberta health officials Tuesday confirmed the deaths of four more Albertans — one of them from southern Alberta — from H1N1 or its complications. No identities were released.
Dr. Andre Corriveau, the chief medical health officer, said the victims were two men and two women, all over 30, with underlying risk factors for severe disease. Three were from the Edmonton area and the other from somewhere in southern Alberta.
They bring the province’s death toll to 29 since H1N1 reached Alberta last spring.
Officials say chronic conditions to be covered, as of Thursday, include:
• diabetes
• obesity (BMI over 30)
• cancer
• chronic kidney disease including those on dialysis
• asthma requiring medication (such as an inhaler)
• other chronic lung conditions such as cystic fibrosis which require ongoing treatment
• congenital heart abnormality
• neurological disorders including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other seizure disorders as well as those associated with difficulty swallowing and managing respiratory secretions
• Down Syndrome and other developmental delays which affect managing respiratory secretions
• congenital or acquired immune deficiency including taking medications that suppress the immune system
• any disorder requiring ongoing ASA (aspirin) treatment
• anemia or hemoglobinopathy
• chronic liver disease
For each, clinic staff will ask for personal identification and documented proof of eligibility, such as a prescription for the chronic condition.
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