Territory awaits release of H1N1vaccine

And the waiting begins....

And the waiting begins….

The H1N1 vaccine is in the territory, but health officials are waiting for the go-ahead from Ottawa to begin doling it out to the public.

Dr. Brendan Hanley, the territory’s medical officer of health, said today 50,000 doses of the vaccine have arrived.

Like all other provinces and territories, however, officials here are waiting for regulatory approval before making the shot available.

With adults likely to need only one dose each, the territory has found itself in the fortunate position of having “more than enough” of the vaccine to go around.

That means emphasis will be placed on encouraging certain groups of people – pregnant women, health care workers, those with particular medical conditions and first nations people – to get the vaccine, though it will be available to everyone.

“There isn’t a priority in terms of holding back,” Hanley told the Star.

Though no exact numbers are being provided, the medical officer of health said the territory is seeing “increasing” numbers of flu cases.

The Yukon still has fewer cases than B.C. and the Northwest Territories.

“All our cases have been mild,” Hanley said, explaining that numbers of confirmed cases aren’t published because officials want to put the overall emphasis on flu activity.

Like other regions of the country, the Yukon has a number of “sentinel sites” – clinics and health centres that are selected to report the number of cases showing flu symptoms on a given day. Those figures are reported nationally and then back to the territory.

“That’s one of the ways we can monitor,” Hanley said.

It’s expected flu activity will soon increase in the Yukon.

As officials get ready to vaccinate Yukoners, Hanley said, the clinics will be similar to the flu clinics that happen every year, though this one will be more intense.

In Whitehorse, Hanley anticipates using the Canada Games Centre as the main site for the vaccination, along with schools and the like, with extended hours into the evenings for the clinics. Health centres in the communities will also likely serve as sites for residents there to get their H1N1 shot.

It’s expected the national vaccination will be the largest mass vaccination to happen in the country.

While Hanley couldn’t confirm whether schools have been sending home students who appear to have the flu, he noted it’s suggested parents keep their children home from school if they are exhibiting flu-like symptoms. He pointed out though that not all minor illness is H1N1 and there may not be a need to stay home if it’s just a minor issue.

Dave Sloan, an official with the Department of Education who’s been working on planning for H1N1 cases in the department, said this morning that while there’s been a couple of cases where parents have been called to the school because their child has had flu symptoms, those numbers aren’t unusual.

“So far, there’s nothing out of the ordinary,” he said.

If there is an outbreak, he said, the department has contingency plans in place that could include combining classes or bringing in on-call teachers or having department staff fill in if there’s a higher number of teacher absences than usual.

Lists of on-call teachers have been updated, as have recruiting efforts for more.

There are also department staff not working in the schools who can fill in and, in a pinch, school staff who don’t teach, such as librarians, could be called on to help.

In line with the federal Public Health Agency, the territory has a goal of maintaining school throughout a possible rise in H1N1 cases as long as that’s feasible, Sloan said.