Nunavut to get priority when H1N1 serum available

Dr. Isaac Sobol, Nunavut’s chief medical officer, said this week that Nunavut will likely be one of the first regions in Canada to received batches of H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available this November. He said all Nunavut residents are urged to get the vaccination, though it’s not mandatory. The GN plans on acquiring a supply that’s big enough to cover everyone in the territory. (PHOTO BY JOHN BIRD)

Nunavut should be one of the first areas in Canada to receive H1N1 vaccinations when the serum becomes available for distribution this November, Nunavut’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Isaac Sobol, said this week.

Sobol has been part of continuing discussions among provincial, territorial and federal health-care providers across the country — through the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network.

They have identified that one of the first priorities will be to make the vaccine available — free — to “rural, remote and isolated communities,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

That includes places only reachable by air, he said, so “all of Nunavut’s communities will fit that bill.”

Pam Coulter, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services, said the federal government will pay 60 per cent of the cost of the serum, while provinces and territories will pick up the rest and also pay for the transportation and administration costs of the vaccination programs.

Sobol said Nunavut’s Department of Health and Social Services is no working on hiring extra staff for the time when the serum becomes available so they can hold mass vaccination clinics.

But it will be up to each community to decide how best to administer the vaccine, whether through the schools, at the health clinics, or through special public events — or some combination of all three.

He said the populations are small enough in Nunavut communities that they will not need to prioritize one group over another, as everyone should be able to receive the vaccine fairly quickly.

He added that the H1N1 virus, still popularly known as swine flu, seems to strike most severely at those between one year of age and 20, as well as women in late pregnancy.

With the seasonal flu, it’s usually the very young and the very old who are most susceptible to a serious illness.

As of a Sept. 2 conference call, he said, participants were told to expect the vaccine to be available by mid to late November.

That’s a bit late, especially in Nunavut, for the return of cold weather — and the onset of the cold and flu season.

It’s still unclear, he added, whether the vaccine will require one shot, as with the seasonal flu, or whether a second repetition will be needed.

Sobol said the federal government has promised there will be enough of the serum available in Canada for everyone who wants a vaccination to get it.

He noted though, that when his department offers free vaccinations for the seasonal flu, generally less than half the population across the territory takes advantage of the offer.

And last year, less than 30 per cent of people in Nunavut got the vaccination: one relatively painless needle in the arm.

This year, he said, the government will do a mass campaign, and with all the concern and media attention already out there, he expects a significantly higher response.

“We’re hoping virtually everybody will get vaccinated,” he said.

Meanwhile, students are already back in the classroom across most of Nunavut, and all parents of school-age children are familiar with the onslaught of flu and cold infections that spread like wildfire through classrooms and homes at this time of year.

Kathy Okpik, the deputy minister of the Department of Education, said her department is working closely with Health and Social Services officials to blitz local schools with messages about how to slow the spread of the virus.

Constant and obsessive emphasis on hand-washing will be the first line of defence, Okpik said.

Classrooms will be provided with hand sanitizers as well, but they will be considered as back-up to plain, old-fashioned, repeated washing throughout the school day.

She said letters are being sent home to parents with similar messages about frequent hand washing, and also that students should be kept home from school whenever they show evidence of flu-like symptoms.

The letter lists the main symptoms of H1N1 virus as: fever, cough, fatigue, and lack of appetite. Additional symptoms may include: runny nose, sore throat, body aches and even nausea and diarrhea.

Sobol repeated his department’s constant mantra that anyone with flu-like symptoms should stay home, whether from school, work, church, bingo or any other public gathering occasion for at least seven days after the symptoms first appear.

Call the health centre, rather than going there directly, he said.

“If you’re still feeling quite sick beyond that period, then by all means stay home longer.” But if it’s just a lingering cough, after seven days you should no longer be contagious.

He added that once you have been completely symptom-free for a 24-hour period, it’s probably safe to go out into the world again, even if the full seven days aren’t up.

If symptoms develop in a child while he or she is at school, Okpik said, the child will be isolated in a special room and the school will contact the parent or guardian to pick the child up as soon as possible.

Children with symptoms will not be able to ride home on the bus with other kids, she emphasized.

The department is also making sure that extra cleaning supplies are available to all schools, which have set up committees to focus on enhanced hygiene.

The committees will do regular walk-throughs of the schools to identify “high-touch areas like handrails, door knobs, computer keyboards, gym equipment and telephones, Okpik said.

Protocols will be put in place to make sure these get repeated, special cleaning attention. And the use of plush toys and other hands-on equipment will be minimized among the younger set.

Both Okpik and Sobol said they are not planning to shut down schools — unless it becomes necessary due to lack of healthy staff, said Okpik. And even then, she added, they will try to just close classrooms as needed.

Experience shows that closing schools doesn’t stop the spread of the disease, Sobol said, and it just adds to the social disruption.

But despite all the precautions, Sobol admitted it is far from clear that the return of the H1N1 virus will be devastating. He noted that reports from New Zealand and Australia suggest that it continues to be a fairly mild form of flu.

Across Nunavut and around the world, hands are being washed — and fingers crossed.