Shortage means no H1N1 clinics this week

The second round of H1N1 inoculations rolled out Friday — but there will be none held this week due to a nationwide shortage of the vaccination.

Starting this week, there will only be H1N1 clinics in Lillooet, Nakusp, Sparwood and Princeton within the Interior Health Authority.

All planned seasonal flu clinics are also cancelled.

A late afternoon Wednesday press release stated the decision was made based on the distance of those communities from other large city centres and because they have not had a clinic in their area.

People in the highest-risk category in communities where there are no mass clinics are being urged to check with their family physicians or walk-in clinics to determine if there are any remaining vaccines.

People at risk are those under 65 with chronic health conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, women in the second half of their pregnancy, people who live in rural or isolated communities, including First Nations residents, children six months to five years of age, household contacts and care providers of infants under six months of age and household contacts and care providers of persons who are immunocompromised.

So far, B.C. has received nearly a half-million doses of the adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine and is expecting an additional 350,000 doses next week.

Also, the province is expecting 25,000 of non-adjuvanted vaccine specifically for pregnant women from Canada’s pandemic H1N1 some time late next week.

All pregnant women are being urged to contact their health-care provider for the vaccine as it will not be given at public clinics.

According to the release, the IHA expects that, once the supply increases, it will reinstate the mass inoculation clinics across the region.

Additionally, the health authority did not provide answers for when the general population would get access to the vaccine and whether it would be too late to protect themselves from the virus.

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has asked for the public’s patience and expects the general public to have access to the vaccination by late November or early December.

Although the U.S. has five suppliers, Canada only has a contract with manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline for the H1N1 vaccine.

For updates and times of the scheduled clinics, go online to interiorhealth.ca.

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