Nunavut hopes vaccine blitz stops swine flu spread

Tagak Curley, the health and social services minister, speaks during a news conference in Iqaluit Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. The department released figures showing that 60 per cent of Nunavummiut got the H1N1 vaccine during a two-week flu shot blitz. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Six in 10 Nunavummiut got the H1N1 flu shot during a two-week vaccination blitz, health minister Tagak Curley said Wednesday.

Nunavut’s health department released figures showing that the territory’s vaccination efforts distributed more than 18,700 doses of the swine flu vaccine and over 16,000 doses of the seasonal vaccine.

And there have been “less than a handful” of lab confirmed cases of swine flu since September, said Isaac Sobol, Nunavut’s chief medical officer.

“I’d like to think we can wave H1N1 goodbye,” Sobol told reporters Wednesday.

From Nov. 1-15, teams of nurses fanned out across the territory to administer vaccination clinics in larger communities, while health centre staff in smaller hamlets were able to conduct clinics on their own.

Vaccination rates varied from a high of 90 per cent in Arctic Bay to a low of 29 per cent in Coral Harbour. In Iqaluit, 4,000 people got the swine flu shot, a rate of 53 per cent. In Rankin inlet, 51 per cent of the population was vaccinated and in Cambridge Bay, the figure was 68 per cent.

Curley said vaccination teams will return to communities “where the uptake was on the low side.”

Sobol said one factor working against the territory’s vaccination efforts were the “really outrageous claims” of some websites opposed to swine flu vaccination that gained acceptance by some Nunavummiut.

One site, which quotes heavily from the book of Revelation, claims that the H1N1 vaccine is part of United Nations plot to depopulate the world. It claims that the vaccine is laced with microchips bearing the number 666 and that those who receive the shot won’t get into heaven.

“You’ll just find these amazing statements being made that boggle the mind, but in an internet world, where there’s no way to determine what is and isn’t valid, if you read something like that you can get really scared,” Sobol said.

As for real side effects, Sobol said there have been about a dozen reports of red itchy eyes. Many who’ve received the shot experienced soreness in the arm that got the injection.

For parents who are planning to take their children in for the second half-dose shot as originally recommended, Sobol said Nunavut, along with Quebec and the Northwest Territories, is waiting for more research before giving the second shot.

Research results and instructions from the Public Health Agency of Canada keep changing, so the three jurisdictions are taking a wait-and-see approach.

“We’re asking the public to hang on,” Sobol said, apologizing to parents for the mixed messages.

While Curley and Sobol both said they’re pleased with the results of the mass vaccination clinics, they pledged continued vigilance against swine flu.

Curley urged Nunavummiut to continue to wash their hands and cough into their sleeves to help prevent the spread of the flu.

And Sobol urged the 40 per cent of Nunavummiut who’ve yet to receive a flu shot to do so. Shots will still be available at local health centres. Sobol said he’d like to see a higher vaccination rate.

“I’d like to see 100 per cent.”