The lineup to get an H1N1 influenza vaccine at the first Revelstoke clinic last Tuesday was more than two hours long. Their desire to immunize themselves appears to be warranted.

“Almost all of them (doctors) in the Interior Health region have way above normal physician billings for influenza like illness. It’s just off the scale,” said Dr. Rob Parker, a medical health officer for the Interior Health Authority. “Revelstoke is one of those areas that has an unprecedented number of people reporting to doctors’ offices with influenza like illnesses, exceeding the history maximum seen in any winter season of seasonal flu.”

While the fatality rate for H1N1 influenza is similar to that of regular seasonal flu -- under two in a thousand, the difference is that H1N1 can affect otherwise healthy adults.

“The one reality is most healthy adults and kids will cope with the influenza infection on their own alright and get better,” said Dr. Parker. “The other coexisting reality is for a percentage of people, both otherwise completely healthy adults and healthy kids, they don’t have any immunity to this virus and for a percentage of them it will put them in hospital and for a very small percentage of them, it might kill them.”

Dr. Parker said up to 30 per cent of people winding up in hospital and getting ventilated don’t have any underlying condition, “and that’s why its scary for people.”

At the community centre clinic on Nov. 3, the line stretched down the hallway and looped back. People waited for more than two hours.

Six-year-old Carlos Serrouya was nervously waiting to get his first ever vaccination.

“I’m trying to run away,” he said. His mother, Sylvia Wood, was making him wait and brought along books to keep him entertained.

Jason Keerak was in line with his two-month old child. Last winter he was hospitalized with seasonal flu twice. This year he didn’t want to take any chances.

At Revestoke’s schools, three instances of absences greater than 10 per cent of the student body were reported to Interior Health as of last Friday, according to superintendent Anne Cooper. High absences were reported at Columbia Park Elementary on Monday and Wednesday and Arrow Heights reported high absences Wednesday.