Junior hockey teams defend H1N1 shots
Last Updated: Monday, November 9, 2009 | 1:17 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Two Ontario junior hockey teams are having to justify why their players received the H1N1 flu shot before high-risk individuals.
Officials with the Windsor Essex County health unit are investigating how members of the Ontario Hockey Association's LaSalle Vipers received the H1N1 vaccine before high-risk individuals did. (LaSalle Vipers) The LaSalle Vipers, a Junior B team, received the vaccine on Nov. 3, after someone within the hockey organization was exposed to the flu in mid-October.
Dr. Allen Heimann, the medical officer of health of Windsor Essex County, said the county health unit is looking into why the junior hockey players were given the vaccine last Tuesday.
”I am investigating, along with my staff,” said Heimann. “It was not done by the health unit. It would have been done by a private practitioner, and I don’t know who that private practitioner was.”
The clinic was set up before strict priority guidelines were put in place, team spokeswoman Gail Robertson said.
In Sarnia, 12 members of the Ontario Hockey League's Sarnia Sting were vaccinated on Nov. 1 after returning from a road game in Kitchener, according to vice-president of operations Bill Abercrombie.
The club decided to give the shots that night believing the vaccination was still on track to be rolled out to the general public the following morning, Abercrombie said.
One of the Sting players was confirmed to have the H1N1 flu earlier that week, he said.
