Why there is no flu clinic in Colborne

Cramahe Township Community Services Director Dan O'Brien got approval from Council on October 20 to host a, H1N1 flu immunization clinic at the Keeler Centre.

When the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit did not schedule one in the first round, Cramahe Now went to find out why. We got our answer and posted it below.

In answer to your (Cramahe Now) question, each Health Unit had to determine how it would try to ensure that individuals who were in the first phase would receive the H1N1 vaccine. We were unable to book clinics until we knew when we would receive vaccine and how much vaccine would be in the first two shipments. Unfortunately, the amount of vaccine in the shipments was significantly less that we had hoped for and the second shipment was delayed by three days.

People in the first phase are:

· People with chronic medical conditions, under the age of 65. A chronic
medical condition is defined as a condition that puts people at a higher
risk of complications from the H1N1 flu virus. Conditions include
cardiac disease, chronic pulmonary diseases (especially asthma),
diabetes and other metabolic diseases, cancer, renal disease, anaemia or
hemoglobinopathy, immunodeficiency (e.g. HIV), morbid obesity,
transplant patients and those who have conditions that compromise the
management of respiratory secretions and are associated with an
increased risk of aspiration.
· Pregnant women.
· Healthy children from six months to five years.
· People residing in remote and isolated communities.
· Health care workers involved in pandemic response or the delivery of
essential health care services.
· Household contacts and care providers of people at high risk who
cannot be immunized or may not respond to vaccines.

Our first shipment of vaccine contained 8,000 doses, which had to be
repackaged as per requirements of the Federal Government's Vaccine
Regulator. Last week we faxed out information and forms to our vaccine
delivery agents (i.e., our local health care providers) requesting that
they let the Health Unit know if they were willing to participate in the
H1N1 Vaccination Program as well as the number of doses requested to
start, and advising them of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
(MOHLTC) requirements of participants.

The total of the requests from the vaccine delivery agents exceeded the
amount we had received from the Ontario Government Pharmacy. Therefore
I made the decision to provide some vaccine to: physicians who had
requested it so that they could start vaccinating their high risk
patients; long-term care homes to start vaccinating their health care
workers; Alderville to start vaccinating their high risk patients; and
our four hospitals to start vaccinating their health care workers.
Of the physicians who chose to receive vaccine shipments, a significant
majority of them were in City of Kawartha Lakes. Therefore we decided to hold our first two clinics in Northumberland County (Cobourg) (today) and Haliburton
County (Village of Haliburton)(Friday).
We were very concerned that we would not have enough vaccine to run these first two clinics, however, we received our second shipment of vaccine late yesterday afternoon.

The province has just announced that health units will receive less
vaccine than expected for the next two weeks based on a change from the
manufacturer. So while we were hoping to open up our clinics for the
broader public in the next couple of weeks it will be dependent upon the
receipt of more vaccine.