Blame Ottawa for flu shot uncertainty: N.L. minister
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 | 9:58 AM NT
CBC News
Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister is blaming the federal government for uncertainty over the province's swine flu vaccination supply.
"I mean I'm here [Tuesday] saying we will get 15,000 vaccinations, and we may get another 3,000 to 6,000," Health Minister Jerome Kennedy said.
"Obviously, that's really not good enough when we're, as a province, trying to plan for what we're going to do each week, but the federal government is not able to give us any larger estimates."
A new shipment of H1N1 vaccines containing an adjuvant, a chemical to boost effectiveness, is due to arrive Wednesday. But clinics that are giving the shots are closed for Remembrance Day.
The province may also receive another 15,500 doses of non-adjuvant vaccine later this week. So far in Canada, the non-adjuvant vaccines have only been offered to women in the first half of a pregnancy.
By Tuesday, more than 100,000 of Newfoundland and Labrador's 500,000 residents had been vaccinated.
When clinics reopen Thursday, the province will expand the list of groups it is prioritizing for vaccination to include people between the ages of 40 and 65 with chronic respiratory problems.
In addition, individuals under the age of 65 with compromised respiratory function due to a physical, neurological or muscular disorder — for example, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia, paraplegia or spina bifida — will also be eligible for vaccination starting Thursday.
Inoculation against the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu has already been offered to the following groups:
- Children between six months and five years of age.
- Parents or other primary caregivers of infants under six months.
- Parents or other primary caregivers of people up to the age of 24 who cannot be immunized.
- All pregnant women.
- Hospital in-patients less than 65 years of age with one or more chronic health conditions.
- School-aged children from kindergarten to Grade 3.
- Individuals aged 25 to 40 with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis.
- Individuals undergoing active cancer treatment and transplant patients (including pre-transplant patients on a wait list and post-transplant patients in the last two years).
