Alberta's seasonal flu shots start in 2 weeks

Health officials will start immunizing Albertans against regular flu in about two weeks, but will suspend the program in favour of mass swine-flu vaccination clinics as soon as H1N1 shots are available.

The seasonal flu shot will be offered at clinics starting Oct. 13 with a focus on seniors, pregnant women, children six months to 23 months old and anyone at high risk of developing a more severe illness.

People living in continuing-care and assisted-living settings will also be offered the shot.

"But we won't be turning anybody away. If people do show up for the vaccine, they will be getting it," Dr. Gerry Predy, Alberta's senior medical officer of health, told a press conference Thursday.

Locations of the clinics will be announced next week on Alberta Health Services' website.

Once a vaccine against H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, is available — likely in November — Alberta will switch gears. At that point, the province will offer that vaccine only to those over the age of six months, with people in high-risk groups encouraged to get their shot early.

The H1N1 vaccination program could cost Alberta as much as $90 million, nine times more than the seasonal flu program.

Health minister to get immunized

Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert, who was also at the press conference, said he is concerned that some Albertans won't bother to get immunized.

"If I were to leave Albertans with one message today, it is this: I am going to get immunized, even though I must admit I don't like the thought of a needle, but I encourage everyone else to do so. Because it's not only to protect yourself but your family and your friends," he said.

Alberta will likely resume its seasonal flu vaccination program once the H1N1 vaccination program is finished.

"Certainly for those with low risk factors, any delay in getting their seasonal flu shot is not a significant risk for them," said Dr. André Corriveau, Alberta’s chief medical officer.

"We are quite confident that seasonal flu strains will not be circulating to any significant extent until later in our season and [people] are unlikely to get severe illness from it anyways."

Alberta reviewed studies

Provincial health officials have been reviewing their vaccination plans since Canadian researchers announced last month that preliminary results of a study suggest people who had received the seasonal flu vaccine in the past were twice as likely to get the pandemic swine flu virus. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed or published.

Some provinces are only aiming their seasonal flu vaccines at seniors, residents of long-term care homes and those who have a chronic illness.

Corriveau said health officials sifted through all the studies and statistics they could gather on the subject before making a decision.

"The seasonal flu vaccine is a very important one. It's safe and it has been shown to make an important difference in the long term. And we don't want to just sit on our stocks of that vaccine while waiting for the H1N1 vaccine to become available," he said.

Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, said Wednesday there appears to be no increased risk of severe disease from the H1N1 virus among people who received seasonal flu shots.

"Those who have severe disease have the same rate of having been immunized with seasonal vaccine as the general population," Butler-Jones said. "So the seasonal vaccine is not a contributor or a cause of severe disease or illness in those people."

He hypothesized that people who got seasonal flu shots may have been more likely to go to their doctor to get tested for H1N1.