Nunavik vaccine effort gets 75 per cent of region

SARAH ROGERS
Special to Nunatsiaq News

When all the figures are tallied, Nunavik will have achieved one of the highest swine flu vaccination rates in Canada.

Dr. Serge Déry, Nunavik’s director of public health, said that since early November, about 75 per cent of the region’s residents have been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus.

This means it’s unlikely that Nunavik will see more lab-confirmed cases of swine flu.

“I think we’ve been successful in convincing the region’s population that the benefits of getting the vaccine were much more important than any possible risks,” said Déry. “We don’t know yet if we’ll have a third wave, but having a good coverage rate [for vaccinations] will help stop transmission.”

Since the second wave of the swine flu virus hit Nunavik in early September, there have been 18 confirmed cases across Nunavik — and no deaths.

The infection rates expected at the beginning of the swine flu outbreak never materialized, and Déry now says the virus is “probably not as bad as we once thought.”

“We’ve been lucky to get the vaccine so soon,” Déry said. “Even if the virus hasn’t hit its peak, we can say that the majority of the population is already protected.”

The goal: the 80 per cent vaccination rate required to stop the virus from travelling freely.

In some Nunavik communities, the vaccination coverage rate reached as high as 95 per cent, Déry said, while others reported less than 60 per cent.

Residents who missed the mass immunization clinic in early November can still contact their local clinic for a shot.

About 9,700 doses of the swine flu vaccine have been sent to Nunavik so far, while another 500 are expected to land in the region this week.

In addition to offering the vaccine to its residents, Nunavik made its vaccine supply available to the region’s non-permanent workers.

That’s because anyone who stays in the region for weeks at a time is still able to transmit the virus to others, Déry said.

At Xstrata’s Raglan mine site in Nunavik, about 500 non-resident workers have been vaccinated — about half the mine’s total number of employees.

“It’s a good thing, in our opinion,” said Xstrata spokesman Francis Beauvais. “They live, eat and work here with their Inuit co-workers. This is a very proactive (move) for a business.”

As for the Kativik School Board, its students got off lightly.

A student in Kuujjuaraapik contracted the swine flu in October but was treated locally, said KSB spokesperson Debbie Astroff.

“There have been no other incidences of employees or students coming down with the H1N1 virus,” said spokewoman Debbie Astroff.

“All the teachers who took preventative leave have been successfully replaced.”