TORONTO - Several local public health units in Ontario are expanding their H1N1 vaccination programs to include the general public but some major cities are still awaiting the go-ahead from the province.
The Ontario Ministry of Health said Monday there is no set date yet for opening up swine flu shots to the majority of Ontario residents, however close to 10 local health units said they were willing and able to do so.
The health units for Niagara, Hamilton, Kingston, Haldimand-Norfolk, Algoma and the Porcupine Health Unit in Timmins were among those with enough vaccine to offer the flu shot to anyone who wanted it.
"Locally, we have the vaccine and resources available to expand our H1N1 clinics to all who want it, and make it more accessible and convenient for our residents," said Dr. Robin Williams, the Medical Officer of Health for Niagara.
Clinics were scheduled through to Dec. 4 at various locations across Niagara, including Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Welland, Port Colborne, Grimsby, Thorold and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Simcoe Muskoka said it has enough vaccine to make the flu shot available to the general public starting Tuesday.
"We are confident we now have the resources to be able to offer this vaccine to the entire population," said Simcoe Muskoka Medical Officer of Health Dr. Charles Gardner.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit in Cornwall said it will begin giving shots to the general public on Thursday, while the Northwestern Health Unit in Kenora said it began inoculating the general public last week.
Toronto, however, is among those still waiting for the province to expand the list to include the general public, said Toronto Public Health spokeswoman Susan Sperling.
Toronto Public Health is sending letters home with elementary school children about times and locations of vaccination clinics, as well as a reminder that the flu shot is available from hundreds of family doctors.
That's after Ontario's expanded the list of those eligible for the vaccine went into effect on Monday to include children 13 and under and seniors 65 and older who have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, cardiac disease or cancer.
Ottawa Public Health will begin vaccinating elementary school age children and seniors over 65 with chronic medical conditions on Wednesday when it reopens its public vaccination clinics.
The clinics were closed last Thursday because of a vaccine shortage but they have received word they will get more doses.
"The province has informed OPH that the delivery of the first portion of the 100,000 doses of the vaccine that we have requested is imminent," said Dr. Isra Levy, Ottawa's Medical Officer of Health.
"Most of them are related to the vaccine itself, but also I think... people are a little bit unsure about what is true flu and then what is simple influenza and a cold, which of course at this time of year is pretty prevalent out there as well," said association chairman Dean Miller.
The association's random survey of Ontario pharmacists found that over the past several weeks they have seen an influx of patients asking questions as public awareness about the virus has gone up.
While the swine flu queries are "occupying a huge amount of time" for pharmacists, Miller said they're coping and it just means patients are having to wait a few minutes longer for access to their druggist.
There's a lot of information about swine flu out there, including the Ontario government mailout and newspaper ad campaign and through Telehealth Ontario, doctor's offices, swine flu assessment centres and the Internet.
Still, people have to sift through all that information, and not all the details they find on the web are credible, so people are turning to the pharmacist who's readily available in their community, Miller said.
"I think what most patients are looking for is they're looking for people that they can trust," said Miller.
Ontario has had 68 lab-confirmed H1N1 deaths since April, 197 people are in hospital and 75 are in intensive care, Ontario Ministry of Health spokesman David Jensen said Monday.
Telehealth Ontario has seen a significant increase in call volumes and it is due to calls about H1N1, said Jensen.
There were 16,122 respiratory or fever-related calls to Telehealth during the weeklong period of Nov. 5-12 -- calls which Jensen said were related to H1N1.
That compares to Oct. 29-Nov. 5, when there were 14,177 respiratory or fever-related calls to Telehealth.
