EDMONTON

Province vows to ease pressure at H1N1 immunization clinics

ctvedmonton.ca Published Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:21PM MDT

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Alberta's Health Minister Ron Liepert said the province plans to add eleven more flu shot clinics across the province as the demand for the H1N1 vaccination continues to grow.

Liepert said Tuesday the situation should be greatly alleviated "within days" as more clinics open up.

"They (Alberta Health Services) have secured an additional 11 sites across the province that will be up and running in the next couple of days, including a large mass clinic in Calgary," said Liepert.

The minister said Alberta Health Services is taking recommendations from local doctors who have said the vaccine should be administered at local doctors' offices as well.

"Today, physicians across the province have been asked to place orders for the vaccine that they feel they can administer out of their offices."

And by early next week, Liepert said he hopes the province can have the 400 pharmacists who will be certified to give flu shots administer the vaccine to Albertans.

A second shipment of the vaccine is currently enroute to Alberta from Quebec. Liepert said he expects the shipment to arrive by Thursday.

A wait time of up to six hours greeted people wanting the H1N1 flu vaccination across the province Monday. And for the second day in row, Albertans are still facing long line ups and long delays at vaccination clinics.

On Monday alone, 38,000 people were vaccinated for the virus.

Health officials said they were surprised by the demand.

"I don't think we knew what the demand was. I guess obviously we weren't as prepared as we could have been," said Dr. Gerry Predy, senior medical officer of health for Alberta Health Services.

The province has so far set up five flu shot clinics in Edmonton to administer the vaccine.

Peter Quinlan was among another dozen or so people lined up outside Westmount Centre Tuesday morning two hours before the clinic opens.

"I was at Bonnie Doon Mall (yesterday) and the line up was four hours. I gave up because I had studying to do," he said.

Over the weekend, a young, otherwise healthy 13-year-old Ontario boy died from the H1N1 flu.

The boy developed flu-like symptoms, including a fever and that's when his family took him to a walk-in clinic in Toronto.

"A doctor checked his lungs and said, 'Everything is fine, it's just the flu, go home and monitor it,'" said the father.

Back at home, the family cared for the teen throughout the night. The father said it all happened within 10 minutes. He started to perform CPR but it was too late. His son had stopped breathing. Paramedics also tried to revive him but they were unsuccessful. Evan Frustaglio died as his father watched on.

"I guess this disease already attacked his heart, that fast," Paul Frustaglio said.

This is the second young person to die in Ontario from the H1N1 flu this week. A young girl in Ottawa died over the weekend from the virus, and she too, had no pre-existing health issues.

Recent polls show 34 per cent of Canadians believe the H1N1 flu vaccine is not safe. Twenty-nine per cent respondents believe the shot could even make them sick.

Canada's Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Butler Jones said there's a greater risk of dying from the virus than there is suffering negative effects from the vaccine.

"How will I feel if I chose not to immunize my child and they ended upon a ventilator dead as a result? That is the proper question that should be asked because it's a safe effective vaccine. The risks from it are tiny, but the risks from this disease... there's no way to predict which of those children will die and I think that's the question we need to ask ourselves."

The five Edmonton clinics part of the mass immunization include: