Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.canada.com/health/Swine+hits+Vancouver+Island+Aboriginal+communities/2004138/story.html
Swine flu hits Vancouver Island Aboriginal communities
For Canwest News ServiceSeptember 17, 2009 1:11 PM
VANCOUVER ? A major outbreak of H1N1 flu has occurred within remote Aboriginal communities on Vancouver Island, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported Thursday.
Tofino, B.C., family physician Dr. John Armstrong says he has treated "dozens" of people infected with the virus, while the outbreak is such that the province's public health lab in Vancouver recently instructed him to stop sending swabs, having confirmed that all of the samples he had already forwarded were, in fact, positive for the H1N1 virus, a report in the journal said.
"We've reduced our swabbing because we know that everyone who has flu-like illness in this area right now has H1N1," Armstrong says in the CMAJ report.
B.C. public health officials "more or less told us to stop taking swabs because the lab is getting swamped in Vancouver."
The largest outbreak occurred in Ahousat, the principal settlement on Flores Island, which is accessible only by water or air.
Ahousat is also one of the main settlements of the Ahousaht First Nations led by hereditary chief Shawn Atleo, who was recently elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Armstrong says there has not been a flu-related death within the area he serves: Tofino and the nearby communities of Hot Springs Cove and Ahousat.
Swine flu hits Vancouver Island Aboriginal communities
For Canwest News ServiceSeptember 17, 2009 1:11 PM
VANCOUVER ? A major outbreak of H1N1 flu has occurred within remote Aboriginal communities on Vancouver Island, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported Thursday.
Tofino, B.C., family physician Dr. John Armstrong says he has treated "dozens" of people infected with the virus, while the outbreak is such that the province's public health lab in Vancouver recently instructed him to stop sending swabs, having confirmed that all of the samples he had already forwarded were, in fact, positive for the H1N1 virus, a report in the journal said.
"We've reduced our swabbing because we know that everyone who has flu-like illness in this area right now has H1N1," Armstrong says in the CMAJ report.
B.C. public health officials "more or less told us to stop taking swabs because the lab is getting swamped in Vancouver."
The largest outbreak occurred in Ahousat, the principal settlement on Flores Island, which is accessible only by water or air.
Ahousat is also one of the main settlements of the Ahousaht First Nations led by hereditary chief Shawn Atleo, who was recently elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Armstrong says there has not been a flu-related death within the area he serves: Tofino and the nearby communities of Hot Springs Cove and Ahousat.