5th death in Ottawa confirmed

[Roehl_JC]

OTTAWA ? Outaouais health officials confirmed Friday that a 28-year-old man is the latest person in the region to die after contracting H1N1.

The man had underlying health conditions, said C?line Jacob, spokeswoman for Outaouais health and social services. He is the Outaouais? fifth fatality in the second wave of H1N1.

Though vaccine shortages have stalled flu shots in Ottawa, clinics across the river will continue to dole them out.

Jacob said the Outaouais had received 11,000 doses this week and another 20,500 were expected Saturday or Sunday.

?We will be able to vaccinate through to next weekend,? Jacob said, adding she was unsure when future shipments of vaccine would arrive.


?We have no control,? she said.

This uncertainty means Jacob still cannot say when the vaccine will be made available to the general public.

Vaccines are now available to pregnant women, children six months to five years old, people who live with young children or people with compromised immune systems, people under 65 years old with chronic medical conditions and health care workers.


In Gatineau, Papineau and Vall?e-de-la-Gatineau, young people between the ages of five and 20 are now eligible for flu shots.


Updated information is available on the Quebec government?s flu website at www.pandemiequebec.gouv.qc.ca.

Jacob said newly opened flu treatment centres have proved popular.

Six centres ? three in Gatineau, two in Papineau and one in Pontiac ? are now up and running since the first two opened Nov. 4.


Jacob said 1,200 people have taken advantage of the centres, which are intended to relieve pressure on hospital emergency rooms by providing care to people showing flu-like symptoms and who do not have immediate access to a healthcare provider.


Attendees must present a health card, or a birth certificate and proof of Quebec residency.

About 265 people attended the centre Tuesday ? so far the one-day record ? and while this put some strain on the centres Jacob said they are ?functioning well.?


She also explained a decision not to give Gatineau police and firefighters priority access to vaccines, unlike elsewhere in the Outaouais.


Only paramedics are considered first responders in Gatineau, Jacob said, and are thus eligible for immediate vaccination. In the rest of the Outaouais firefighters and police are also first responders.


Jacob said the decision was not linked to the supply of vaccine.

? Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Fifth+H1N1+death+reported/2219957/story.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: 5th death in Ottawa confirmed

2 more Ottawa-area H1N1 deaths

Fri Nov 13, 5:09 PM

OTTAWA (CBC) - Two more people have died from swine flu-related illness in the National Capital Region, health officials have reported.

Dr. Isra Levy, Ottawa's medical officer of health, told a news conference Friday afternoon that another person in the city had succumbed to the H1N1 virus, bringing the number of swine flu-related deaths in Ottawa since September to five.

Levy said the person had underlying health conditions and died at an Ottawa hospital earlier this week. A source at city hall later confirmed it was a 50-year-old man who died.

The H1N1 virus also claimed another life in west Quebec. The Outaouais health agency reported Friday that a 28-year-old man, also with underlying ailments, died from H1N1-related illness on Wednesday. It was the fifth H1N1-related death in the Outaouais region in west Quebec since September.

Despite the deaths, Dr. Levy said Ottawa's current H1N1 outbreak may have reached its peak.

"The degree of influenza in our community actually seems to be somewhat stable, if not even a little less than it's been in the last several weeks."

Because of that, Levy said the Centretown Community Health Centre will be ramping down its flu assessment services and likely won't offer them after Sunday. However, all other flu assessment clinics in the city will keep their doors open:

Dr. Levy expects Ottawa will get a new shipment of H1N1 vaccine by Tuesday or Wednesday and will reopen its vaccination clinics by the middle of next week, at the earliest.

Levy said the health agency doesn't have a clear plan on how it will disseminate the vaccine because it still doesn't know how many doses it will receive, nor how much of the vaccine will be adjuvanted or non-adjuvanted.

Still, Levy expects the province to announce that school-age children up to age 14 and seniors over the age of 65 will be the next priority groups for vaccination.

Swine flu vaccination clinics in Ottawa closed at the end of Thursday because of a shortage of vaccine.

By the end of Thursday, Ottawa Public Health said it had distributed almost 190,000 doses of the vaccine to priority groups. The vaccine inoculates against the strain of H1N1 influenza virus responsible for the current swine flu pandemic.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/091113/canada/canada_ottawa_ottawa_area_swine_flu_deaths_4

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: 5th death in Ottawa confirmed

Group home resident dies of H1N1 virus
Staff taking precautions; flu cases wane across city
By Glen McGregor, Pauline Tam and Tony Spears, The Ottawa CitizenNovember 14, 2009 8:11 AMBe the first to post a comment
A severely disabled man who spent most of his life in group homes is believed to be Ottawa's fifth known H1N1 flu-related death this fall.

Michael Richardson, 50, died from respiratory problems at The Ottawa Hospital's General campus on Wednesday afternoon after testing positive for the H1N1 virus, according to his sister.
His roommate also tested positive for H1N1, and the agency that runs their Ottawa group home is treating the two cases as an outbreak.

Meanwhile, health officials in West Quebec confirmed that a 28-year-old man with underlying health problems is the Outaouais region's fifth person to die after contracting H1N1.

Richardson had been vaccinated in the week before his death and Judy Turner believes the vaccine compounded her older brother's underlying health issues.

"We suspected he got the shot and it made him ill," Turner said.

Richardson was born with serious brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation during a long delivery, Turner said. He was unable to walk or speak and the family wasn't certain he recognized his siblings.

"We liked to think he recognized my mother's voice," she said.

He was being treated with antibiotics for pneumonia, but his blood oxygen levels continued to drop after he was admitted to hospital Monday. The cause of death was listed as aspiration pneumonia, apparently triggered by a seizure he suffered that morning, Turner said.

Richardson had been living in a home run by Ottawa-Carleton Lifeskills.

His roommate was hospitalized this week for an unrelated medical issue and tested positive for H1N1. He is asymptomatic of swine flu, but remains in hospital, according to Jocelyne Paul, executive director of Ottawa-Carleton Lifeskills.

Two or more confirmed cases are considered an outbreak, so staff at the home are taking additional precautions and limiting visitors, Paul said. There are nine residents and a staff of about 20 who work in shifts at the home.

Some of the clients and staff received H1N1 shots when Ottawa's vaccination clinics opened, she said. Health officials have agreed to send nurses to the group homes to vaccinate residents when vaccination resumes, she said.

Ottawa's medical officer of health, Dr. Isra Levy, told reporters Friday that there had been a fifth swine flu-related death in Ottawa this week, but did not give any identifying details.

Levy said the man had "significant underlying medical conditions" when he was hospitalized with complications.

The news follows the death earlier this week of Keith Fagnou, a 38-year-old University of Ottawa professor, who became the city's fourth H1N1 casualty since Sept. 1, the unofficial start of the pandemic's second wave.

Compared to the previous two weeks, which saw a sharp rise in the number of people with flu-like illness at hospital emergency rooms, the rate of suspected H1N1 flu cases appear to be on the wane this week, said Levy.

Already, area schools have reported fewer absent students than two weeks ago, another hint that the outbreaks may have peaked.

As a result, the flu assessment centre at the Centretown Community Health Centre is expected to wind down by Sunday, allowing the primary-care clinic to gradually return to business-as-usual.

Five other flu centres across the city, as well as the Orl?ans Urgent Care Centre, will remain open to treat people with flu-like symptoms seeking medical help.

With Ontario expanding its vaccination program Friday to include children under 13 and chronically ill seniors, Levy provided a broad outline of what Ottawa could expect in the coming weeks, as fresh shipments of the vaccine are expected and more people qualify for it.

With the province shipping 470,000 doses of the vaccine and an additional 272,500 doses of a special formula made specifically for pregnant women, the city likely won't get enough to re-open its vaccination clinics for at least another week, said Levy.

Because of a vaccine shortage, the clinics were closed Friday for the first time in three weeks. Until they reopen, shots will only be offered to priority groups through doctors' offices, said Levy.

About 100 family doctors and allergists are expected to receive the last of the city's 26,000 doses by this weekend, with more to follow next week.

Another 2,000 doses of the special formulation for pregnant women will be held in stockpile.

Though vaccine shortages have stalled flu shots in Ottawa, clinics across the river will continue to dole them out.

C?line Jacob, a spokeswoman for Outaouais health and social services, said the Outaouais received 11,000 doses this week and another 20,500 were expected today or Sunday.

"We will be able to vaccinate through to next weekend," Jacob said, adding she was uncertain when future shipments of vaccine would arrive.

This uncertainty means Jacob still cannot say when the vaccine will be made available to the general public.

Updated information is available on the Quebec government's flu website at pandemiequebec.gouv.qc.ca.

Jacob said newly opened flu treatment centres have proved popular.

Six centres -- three in Gatineau, two in Papineau and one in Pontiac -- are now up and running since the first two opened on Nov. 4.

Jacob said 1,200 people have taken advantage of the centres, which are intended to relieve pressure on hospital emergency rooms by providing care to people showing flu-like symptoms and who do not have immediate access to a health care provider.

Attendees must present a health card or a birth certificate and proof of Quebec residency. About 265 people attended the centre Tuesday -- so far the one-day record. While this put some strain on the centres, Jacob said they are "functioning well." She also explained a decision not to give Gatineau police and firefighters priority access to vaccines, unlike elsewhere in the Outaouais.

In Gatineau, only paramedics are considered first responders, Jacob said, and are thus eligible for immediate vaccination. In the rest of the Outaouais, firefighters and police are also considered first responders.

Jacob said the decision was not linked to the supply of vaccine.
http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?ID=25717

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: 5th death in Ottawa confirmed

H1N1 caused death of group home resident: report

Updated: Sat Nov. 14 2009 17:55:04

<SCRIPT language=javascript type=text/javascript> var byString = ""; var sourceString = "ctvottawa.ca"; if ((sourceString != "") && (byString != "")) { document.write(byString + ", "); } else { document.write(byString); }</SCRIPT>ctvottawa.ca

Residents at an unidentified Ottawa-Carleton Lifeskills group home are facing an outbreak after a man died of H1N1 and his roommate also contracted the virus, according to a media report.

A 50-year-old man died of respiratory problems at the Ottawa General Hospital on Wednesday, said a story in the Ottawa Citizen.

No one at the Ottawa-Carleton Lifeskills main line answered phone calls.

The organization aims to provide a supportive environment for people with severe disabilities, offering clients services ranging from home visits to full-care facilities, of which the organization has seven.

There have been 10 swine flu deaths in Ottawa and Gatineau in the "second wave" of H1N1 that has hit the community in past weeks.

http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...TT_h1n1_death_091114/20091114/?hub=OttawaHome