Compared to their neighbours to the south, Canadian health authorities are taking their time in determining who would be first in line to receive a pandemic influenza vaccine when one becomes available this fall.
The priority list, which would establish who gets their shots in the first week as opposed to in later weeks, won't be ready until September. Meanwhile, a vaccine advisory panel in the United States moved forward Wednesday in recommending that pregnant women, health-care workers, and children six months and older should be placed at the front of the queue.
The lack of urgency in Canada is because, unlike other countries, there will be enough vaccine for all Canadians, said the country's chief medical officer of health. Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has a long-standing contract with the government to provide vaccine to every Canadian who wants and needs it in the event of a pandemic.
“Most countries are prioritizing because they don't have enough vaccine for everybody, so they are choosing groups to be immunized,” David Butler-Jones said at a news conference Wednesday. “For us, it's not whether they will be immunized or not. It's whether they are immunized on that day or in a couple of weeks, three weeks, or four weeks later.”
Still, there is concern in some quarters of how quickly a vaccine will be rolled out. The new H1N1 virus strain is not growing fast enough in the eggs, and manufacturers say it is producing barely half as much yield to make vaccines as the seasonal flu virus. GSK has yet to confirm the yield at its facility.
The U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices made recommendations on priority groups yesterday to address potential limits in vaccine availability. Among the priority groups in the U.S. would be pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age, health care and emergency services personnel, persons between the ages of 6 months through 24 years of age, and people from ages 25 through 64 years who are at higher risk for novel H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.
Dr. Butler-Jones indicated that pregnant women, who have a higher rate of hospitalization when infected with swine flu, would be among those first to be immunized in Canada.
Health officials say the priority list will be based on scientific and epidemiological evidence.
“We don't need to make that decision today, as the production will be starting some time in October,” Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said. “We have a window of opportunity here to continue to learn more about H1N1 so by the time we develop the priority listing that it is based on the best information that we have, based on the cases that we're seeing across Canada, as well as in the global community.”
A government spokesman said the current priority is providing guidance to front-line workers. Three documents were released yesterday for health-care workers and emergency responders to prevent and control infections of H1N1 influenza.
Berry Vrbanovic, second vice-president at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and a city councillor in Kitchener, Ont., welcomed the guidelines, but was critical that a priority list for a vaccination has yet to be worked out.
“The critical next step is for the federal government to sit down right away with provinces and territories to design and implement a comprehensive national plan that ensures critical workers have timely access to vaccination and antivirals,” Mr. Vrbanovic said. “Our pandemic response depends on keeping our police, firefighters, paramedics, transit operators, and other critical workers healthy and on the job.”
Also Wednesday, Quebec Agriculture Department officials said a strain of the H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in a herd of pigs in the province but that there is no danger to the public.
The isolated case was identified by the federal government lab in Winnipeg last week after signs of the flu were detected in the herd at the end of June.
All the animals are now healthy, none has died and there has been no report of any human cases associated with this infection, which was described as very mild by Alain Laperle, a pathologist with the provincial Agriculture Department.
With reports from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
