Taking steps to prevent H1N1

Mother Karen Brewster, and her children Nathan and Kaedence, received H1N1 influenza vaccinations during Photo by Chris Simon a clinics at the Stroud Arena Friday. Thousands of people were vaccinated across the region last week. Karen Brewster is scared of needles.

But she's also a daycare operator and mother of two, and knows the importance of protecting herself from illness. On Friday, Karen and her children, Kaedence and Nathan, ages five and one respectively, waited patiently for the H1N1 influenza immunization, during a clinic at the Stroud Arena.

"They didn't cry, but I might," she said jokingly, as Nathan sat in her lap. "(H1N1) is very scary right now, and my daughter has asthma. She gets sick often, and her sickness lasts for a long amount of time. They're always around children, as am I. So it's really important we stay healthy."

The clinic was the first of its kind for Innisfil, although others have been taking place across the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit's jurisdiction since early last week. Since the clinics began, over 10,000 people have been inoculated, said health unit corporate services director Sandra Horney.

"We've been quite busy. We implemented a quasi-registration program at the beginning of the week, because we had learned from health units in neighbouring regions about the line-ups and challenges. We tried to implement a system to gauge the amount of people coming in at a time," she said. "It's not an exact science, but it has helped, in terms of not having people waiting outside for long. It just depends on the time of day."

The health unit has redeployed 90 per cent of its staff to clinics throughout the region, in order to meet the demand for immunization. So far, the clinics are only open to high risk residents. Those include people with chronic medical conditions under the age of 65 and all children six months to five years old.

Household members and care providers of persons at high risk who cannot be immunized or may fail to respond to vaccines, or health care workers involved in pandemic response or who deliver essential services, are also considered high risk.

People living in remote communities, and pregnant women who have chronic medical conditions or are greater than 20 weeks along are also being targeted for immunization.

The vaccine will become available to the general public, once demand from high risk groups wain, and there is an adequate supply sent by the provincial and federal governments, said Horney.

"People are coming with very real expectations; they understand the criteria, and appreciate why we're focusing on that," she said. "We want to ensure we reach that high risk group.

“We have a sense of what that population looks like, in terms of total percentage of (residents).

“Then we'll look at expanding the criteria."

Horney says residents can take measures to reduce the spread of illness, by frequently washing hands, coughing and sneezing into their sleeves, and visiting the health unit's website for an H1N1 self-assessment test.

H1N1 immunization clinics will also be held at the arena on Nov. 20 and 27, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, including a list of upcoming clinics throughout the area, visit www.simcoemuskokahealth. org.