Thursday's facts and figures on the H1N1 pandemic
Canwest News Service
November 19, 2009 4:02 PM
Fifty-two Canadians died due to complications from the H1N1 virus between Tuesday and Thursday, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported on Thursday, bringing the country's death toll to 250. Twenty-two of those deaths came from Alberta, more than doubling the flu's toll in that province to 42 victims. The latest numbers came on the same day flu clinics in Ontario and Winnipeg opened to the general public. B.C. is to do the same on Friday, and Alberta announced they would follow early next week.
- Another professional sports team has been added to the list of organizations who jumped the vaccine queue ? the Vancouver Canucks. B.C.'s provincial health officer said the team's players and support staff were vaccinated earlier this week, even though they weren't in any of the risk groups currently allowed to be inoculated in the province. So far, the Calgary Flames, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors, the AHL's Abbotsford Heat, and the OHL's Sarnia Sting have all got into similar controversies.
- A study out of Toronto warns that even mild asthma increases a child's risk of being hospitalized with more severe flu symptoms. Researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children found that children admitted with H1N1 were significantly more likely to have asthma than those with seasonal flu ? 22 per cent of those with H1N1 had asthma versus six per cent for seasonal flu.
- World Health Organization officials said Thursday H1N1 vaccines appear as safe as seasonal flu shots. At least 80 million doses have been distributed worldwide, and at least 65 million doses have been administered, according to figures from 16 countries. Approximately 30 people have died following H1N1 vaccine administration.
"From what we see so far, the pandemic flu vaccine has the same safety profile as the seasonal flu vaccine," Dr. Marie-Paul Kieny, director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research said in a news briefing from WHO's headquarters in Geneva.
? Copyright (c) Canwest News
Canwest News Service
November 19, 2009 4:02 PM
Fifty-two Canadians died due to complications from the H1N1 virus between Tuesday and Thursday, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported on Thursday, bringing the country's death toll to 250. Twenty-two of those deaths came from Alberta, more than doubling the flu's toll in that province to 42 victims. The latest numbers came on the same day flu clinics in Ontario and Winnipeg opened to the general public. B.C. is to do the same on Friday, and Alberta announced they would follow early next week.
- Another professional sports team has been added to the list of organizations who jumped the vaccine queue ? the Vancouver Canucks. B.C.'s provincial health officer said the team's players and support staff were vaccinated earlier this week, even though they weren't in any of the risk groups currently allowed to be inoculated in the province. So far, the Calgary Flames, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors, the AHL's Abbotsford Heat, and the OHL's Sarnia Sting have all got into similar controversies.
- A study out of Toronto warns that even mild asthma increases a child's risk of being hospitalized with more severe flu symptoms. Researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children found that children admitted with H1N1 were significantly more likely to have asthma than those with seasonal flu ? 22 per cent of those with H1N1 had asthma versus six per cent for seasonal flu.
- World Health Organization officials said Thursday H1N1 vaccines appear as safe as seasonal flu shots. At least 80 million doses have been distributed worldwide, and at least 65 million doses have been administered, according to figures from 16 countries. Approximately 30 people have died following H1N1 vaccine administration.
"From what we see so far, the pandemic flu vaccine has the same safety profile as the seasonal flu vaccine," Dr. Marie-Paul Kieny, director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research said in a news briefing from WHO's headquarters in Geneva.
? Copyright (c) Canwest News
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