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Flu-like symptons keep Quebec students home
Tue Nov 10, 8:33 AM
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MONTREAL (CBC) - The absentee rates in Quebec schools have doubled over the last week because of concerns about swine flu, the province's civil safety agency says.
But no schools have closed as a result, according to the agency's safety co-ordinator Michel Dor?.
Parents will have to be patient about getting their children inoculated against the H1N1 flu virus as the province is focusing on vaccinating higher priority cases for the moment, Dor? said Monday.
Once the chronically ill are vaccinated, children aged 5-19 are next in line, but that rollout will take time, said Dr. Alain Poirier, director of Quebec's public health agency.
"It could take as much as two weeks to deliver the vaccine to this age group, and maybe more," he said during a daily update on the flu situation in the province.
Quebec's regional health authorities will decide when to proceed to the next priority group, depending on how well their vaccination campaigns are going, Poirier said.
On the West Island, more than 1,000 students in the Lester B. Pearson School Board stayed home from class last week with flu-like symptoms.
Board chair Marcus Tabachnick said the situation is under control, "but obviously, the sooner [vaccines] can get done, the better."
In Montreal, children and teens should begin to receive the vaccine on Dec. 7.
In Laval, children and teens are eligible for the shot starting next week.
On Montreal's South Shore, vaccination for children and teenagers starts Nov. 23.
Montreal has 14 makeshift vaccination clinics doling out the H1N1 shot.
The clinics can provide a total of 20,000 vaccinations per day.
Seven deaths in Quebec have been attributed to H1N1 since the second wave of the flu hit the province and 579 people have been hospitalized.
So far, over 800,000 Quebecers have received swine flu immunizations.
About a dozen clinics geared toward flu-infected patients opened Monday.
Public health officials said these clinics will alleviate pressure on hospital emergency rooms that have been overrun by people with flu symptoms.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/091110/canada/canada_montreal_quebec_flu_students_stay_home
Tue Nov 10, 8:33 AM
<!-- phugc -->
MONTREAL (CBC) - The absentee rates in Quebec schools have doubled over the last week because of concerns about swine flu, the province's civil safety agency says.
But no schools have closed as a result, according to the agency's safety co-ordinator Michel Dor?.
Parents will have to be patient about getting their children inoculated against the H1N1 flu virus as the province is focusing on vaccinating higher priority cases for the moment, Dor? said Monday.
Once the chronically ill are vaccinated, children aged 5-19 are next in line, but that rollout will take time, said Dr. Alain Poirier, director of Quebec's public health agency.
"It could take as much as two weeks to deliver the vaccine to this age group, and maybe more," he said during a daily update on the flu situation in the province.
Quebec's regional health authorities will decide when to proceed to the next priority group, depending on how well their vaccination campaigns are going, Poirier said.
On the West Island, more than 1,000 students in the Lester B. Pearson School Board stayed home from class last week with flu-like symptoms.
Board chair Marcus Tabachnick said the situation is under control, "but obviously, the sooner [vaccines] can get done, the better."
In Montreal, children and teens should begin to receive the vaccine on Dec. 7.
In Laval, children and teens are eligible for the shot starting next week.
On Montreal's South Shore, vaccination for children and teenagers starts Nov. 23.
Montreal has 14 makeshift vaccination clinics doling out the H1N1 shot.
The clinics can provide a total of 20,000 vaccinations per day.
Seven deaths in Quebec have been attributed to H1N1 since the second wave of the flu hit the province and 579 people have been hospitalized.
So far, over 800,000 Quebecers have received swine flu immunizations.
About a dozen clinics geared toward flu-infected patients opened Monday.
Public health officials said these clinics will alleviate pressure on hospital emergency rooms that have been overrun by people with flu symptoms.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/091110/canada/canada_montreal_quebec_flu_students_stay_home