H1N1 vaccine rolls out in N.W.T., Yukon next week

People in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories can get the H1N1 influenza vaccine starting next week, health officials in both territories said Wednesday.

Vaccines for the virus that causes swine flu will be made available free to everyone aged six months and upin flu clinics that start Monday.

Schedules for flu shot clinics were released hours after federal regulators approved the use of the H1N1 vaccine in Canada on Wednesday.

Special week-long flu shot clinics will be set up in the territorial capitals of Whitehorse and Yellowknife:

• Whitehorse Canada Games Centre, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
• Yellowknife Multiplex (DND Gym), 12 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Vaccination clinics in N.W.T. communities outside Yellowknife will take place throughout next week and the month of November. Schedules have been posted on the Health Department's website.

Nursesreach remote N.W.T. communities

People in all N.W.T. will be offered the vaccine within the next three weeks, public health officer Dr. Kami Kandola said.

Sixteen nurses have been hired to form immunization action teams that will administer vaccines in all regions of the N.W.T., including small isolated communities that are accessible only by air.

"These teams will go to the regional centres and help the regional community health nurses deliver the vaccine.And then they'll be split even then smaller teams that will go out to the smaller communities," Kandola told reporters in Yellowknife.

"It's the most effective and efficient way to get teams in all areas of the Northwest Teritories whithin the three-week period."

H1N1 a 'different influenza'

In Yukon communities outside Whitehorse, flu shots will be made available at local health centres at dates to be announced.

Yukon chief medical officer Dr. Brendan Hanley said he hopes more people will get the H1N1 vaccine. In the past, only one of every four Yukoners received seasonal flu shots, he said.

"This is a different influenza. This is an influenza that has been affecting younger people," Hanley said.

"If we do see steadily increasing H1N1 influenza [cases] as elsewhere, that does put essentially everyone at risk."

Health officials in the Northwest Territories say they are offering only the H1N1 vaccineat this time, and will offer the seasonal flu shot separately

The H1N1 virus has spread to 25 of the N.W.T.'s 33 communities and is the dominant flu strain in the territory.

Health officials in Nunavut are expected to unveil that territory's H1N1 mass vaccination plans on Thursday morning.

Chief medical officer Dr. Isaac Sobol has previously said vaccinations would start in November, and the vaccine will be offered to all Nunavummiut who want it.