Health clinics and doctor’s offices across Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows are bursting at the seams this week as people line up to get H1N1 vaccinations.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook here,” said Maria Caya at the Golden Ears Family Practice and Walk-In Clinic on Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge. “About 80 per cent of calls we’ve had are H1N1-related.”

The six doctors who work out of the clinic administered 56 vaccines on Monday, the first day the vaccination was available. As of Tuesday afternoon, the wait for walk-ins was one-and-a-half to two-hours long.

“We are fully booked this afternoon,” said Caya.

Staff at both offices of the Ridge Meadows Care Clinic said they were experiencing higher-than-normal patient volumes as well.

“We are extremely busy,” said Mary Connolly, the clinics’ manager.

The vaccine arrived in B.C. on Oct. 20 and was approved for distribution by Health Canada the next day. The vaccine is being provided free of charge by Fraser Health and can be administered by any physician.

Currently, only those under the age of 65 with chronic health conditions, or pregnant women in the second half of their pregnancy qualify for the vaccine.

The vaccine won’t be made available to the general public until Nov. 9.

However, starting Nov. 2, the vaccine will be made available for children between six months and five years-old, health care workers and emergency first responders (such as police, fire, and ambulance), and care providers of infants less than six months of age and people who have weakened immune systems.

Fraser Health is also working with Aboriginal communities and community organizations that serve the homeless to provide H1N1 vaccinations.

Since April, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has confirmed 199 severe H1N1 cases across the province, including 87 in the Fraser Health region, which stretches from Burnaby to Boston Bar.

To date, there have been 12 laboratory-confirmed deaths in B.C. due to H1N1, with seven deaths in the Fraser Health region. In 11 of those cases, there were underlying medical conditions.

Regular flu season, by comparison, kills 400 to 800 B.C. residents a year, many of them elderly.

Symptoms of H1N1 include fever, difficulty breathing, blue lips, difficulty moving, drowsiness, confusion, disorientation, and convulsions.

Those considered more at risk: people with asthma or other lung disease, patients with cardiovascular disease, people with compromised immune systems due to cancer treatment or AIDS, pregnant women or very new mothers, diabetics and the morbidly obese.

“The best way to protect yourself and others from the flu is to wash your hands regularly with soap and warm water; cough or sneeze into your sleeve; stay home and limit contact with others if you are sick; and get both the H1N1 and seasonal flu shots if you are eligible,” stated Fraser Health Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Roland Guasparini in a press release.

Fraser Health will be suspending some public health services during the H1N1 vaccination campaign, including school immunizations for human papillomavirus (HPV), as well as three-year-old and kindergarten vision, hearing and dental screening. Services such as routine childhood and adult immunizations, communicable disease services will continue.

• For more information on H1N1, common symptoms and where to get vaccinated, see www.immunizebc.ca or call the 811 nurse line.