B.C. expands H1N1 clinics provincewide

Health officials in B.C. openedadditional H1N1 vaccinationclinics across the province on Monday as more people became eligibleto getthe shots, but the supply of the vaccine remains uncertain.

The eligibility list for the vaccine, which targets the strain of H1N1 influenza A responsible for the current swine flu pandemic,expanded on Monday to include children under five, health care workers and those who take care of infants.

Last week, the vaccine was offered to people under 65 with chronic health conditions, pregnant women in the second half of their pregnancy, and people living in isolated settings or remote communities, including aboriginals, but the waits were still hours long in many areas.

Provincial Health officer Perry Kendall said some clinics will have a new strategy to avoid long lines this week the nurses will hand out numbers to those in line, allowing people to leave and comeback closer to their time.

But those numbers will only be handed out when the clinics are open, meaning those who line up early will still have to wait.

Uncertain supply

Meanwhile, provincial health officials don't yet have final numbers of how many doses of swine flu vaccine they expect to receive next week.

By the end of the week, the province will have shipped out 800,000 doses of the vaccine enough to immunize about 20 per cent of the population, Kendall said.

But the province was scheduled to receive just 58,000 doses of adjuvant-containing vaccine and 25,000 of adjuvant-free shots from GlaxoSmithKline this week. It might be as late as December before thereare enough doses to immunize the majority of British Columbians, health officials said last week.

Because the supply is much less than expected, those who don't yet qualify for the vaccine will be turned away, said Kendall. But he admitted nurses might have trouble determining who is actually qualified.

"We don't have magical diagnostic tools, like tricorders that they have on Star Trek," said Kendall. "So, faced with a 50-year-old who says they have an underlying chronic health condition, we will have to believe them if they say they do."

Vancouver clinics open at noon

In Vancouver, there are now three full-time clinics in Mount Pleasant, South East Vancouver and Kerrisdale which will deliver the vaccine between noon and 7:30 p.m. PT all week long.

Starting Monday, the Fraser Health Authority will also offer the H1N1 vaccine through public clinics. Last week, individuals had to visit their family doctor to get their shot.

Dr. Elizabeth Brodkin, a medical health officer with the Fraser Health Authority, said they received a larger shipment of vaccine this week, prompting the decision to open the public clinics.

This is the largest mass immunization campaign in Canadian history, so people should expect long line-ups at clinics today, Brodkin noted.

Interior and Northern Health clinics open

In the southern Interior, so far, about 50,000 doses of the vaccine have been given out to patients high on the priority list, including First Nations communities and front-line health care workers.

Dr. Andrew Larder, a senior medical health officer with Interior Health, said this week much of the vaccine will be distributed through local doctor's offices, but it will also be available at public clinics.

"More than half of the vaccine will go to physicians across the health authority," said Larder. "We'll continue to target key health care workers, complete our distribution to First Nations communities, and we will hold about 50 public health clinics in something like 38 communities across the health authority."

Swine flu vaccination clinics will also open Monday in some Northern communities, including Kitamaat Village, Hazelton, Burns Lake, Fraser Lake, Mackenzie and Dawson Creek. People in Prince George, however,will have to wait until Tuesday for a shot.

Public and private clinics

Meanwhile, B.C.'s Minister for Healthy Living and Sport said she expects the private doctor's clinics to follow the same rules as public clinics.

"I expect that the clinics who have received some of the doses that they will abide by the fact that the most vulnerable groups are still the ones that receive the vaccine," said Chong.

"They need to abide by those rules, and if there's any infraction of that, then certainly we're going to investigate those," she said.

A total of 12 deaths in B.C. have been linked to the H1N1 influenza, and more than 200 patients have been hospitalized.