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A shortage of H1N1 vaccine is forcing flu clinics in many parts of the country to shut their doors this week at a time when more Canadians are being admitted to hospital, leaving healthy people in limbo over when they will get the shot.

Some clinics in Manitoba and New Brunswick have temporarily closed, and British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer said closures could be imminent as the province drains the rest of its vaccine supply.

“As this week's stock of vaccine runs out, clinics scheduled for later in the week may be closed. But that will be determined on a regional basis and it will depend on the demand and how much vaccine is used up,” Perry Kendall said Monday in a conference call.

The national shortage is because Canada's sole vaccine supplier, GlaxoSmithKline, was forced to make changes to its production line in mid-course to manufacture a version of the vaccine for pregnant women. Only 436,000 doses were shipped to the provinces and territories last week, far less than the roughly two million anticipated.

Federal health officials and the company have said the plant in Ste-Foy, Que., has ramped up production and millions of doses are now being produced each week.

But the production glitch came at an unfortunate time: Hospitalizations and intensive-care admissions were up almost three-fold in the last week of October compared with the previous week, and more people have died from H1N1 in Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

GSK started shipping another 1.8 million doses of vaccine this week. But by the time it reaches the provinces, gets repackaged and sent to local health units, it could be the end of the week or as late as next Monday before needles get into arms.

Vera Etches, associate medical officer of health in Ottawa, said Ottawa Public Health's remaining 30,000 doses will hold clinics until Wednesday. Dr. Etches hopes that by that time another shipment will have arrived.

In Alberta, André Corriveau, the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health, said it's difficult at this point to guess when people not in the priority groups will be offered the vaccine.

“The problem is we only find out one week at a time how much we're getting the week after. So if I knew for a fact that we're getting 300,000 doses a week for the next few weeks, I could give you a prediction. But right now, we just find out one week at a time. We'll go there as soon as we can,” Dr. Corriveau said.

The shortage has resulted in online scammers trying to make a quick buck.

Police in Victoria are investigating a case of someone claiming to be a public health nurse trying to sell a vial of vaccine on the Internet to the highest bidder. The posting has been taken down, Dr. Kendall said.

“No one, especially a person who has the bad taste to pose as a nurse, should be offering healthy people the option of seeking preferential treatment and jumping a queue,” Dr. Kendall said. “Nor should they be seeking monetary benefits by openly running counter to the rules that the rest of the public health system is following. This is unacceptable.”

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