Influenza vaccines now available

Vaccines for this year's identified strain of influenza are now available throughout the province.

The vaccines are available to all Albertans six months of age or older. The clinics will be available until November and in some cases may be available until December.

After that, a vaccine will be available at most pharmacies and doctors' offices by appointment.

“We encourage everyone to attend the larger public health clinics or visit their doctor or pharmacist to receive the influenza vaccine,” Dr. Digby Horne, Alberta Health Services' medical officer of health for the central zone, told the Gazette.

Although it's difficult to predict, Horne said usually the peak of the flu season occurs in December or January, with some cases occurring in April of each year.

Horne said anyone who has an underlying heart, lung or diabetic condition is more susceptible to influenza complications – pneumonia and in some cases death. More often, seniors over 65 years old and young children six months to two years old are the most at risk of developing complications, he said.

Horne said about 20 to 25 per cent of the population each year gets influenza, with varying degrees of seriousness depending on underlying health conditions.

Last year, there were about 4,000 tested and confirmed cases of the H1N1 strain throughout the province. Of those cases, about 1,200 people were hospitalized and 30 people died as a result.

The World Health Organization tracks which strains of the virus are most prevalent at the end of each flu season “and based on that, they make a prediction as to what strains are going to be circulating in the next (flu) season in the Northern Hemisphere, and they give those recommendations to the vaccine manufacturers,” Horne said.

The vaccine is the best way to protect oneself from the most prevalent strain in a given flu season. Horne said that each vaccine that is given out is either a killed form of the virus or a live attenuated form, which means that the virus will only multiply in a person's nose or throat, which is cooler than in the lungs, the place where the most serious complications arise.

The live attenuated form is given to children aged two to 17.

“People can't get influenza from receiving the vaccine. It's possible in some cases that they will get redness, swelling, itchiness at the injection site. It's possible that they could get a rare neurologic syndrome called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

“However, it's known that influenza virus itself causes that at a higher frequency, so it definitely is the lesser risk of exposure to the vaccine,” he said.

People who contract Guillain-Barre syndrome can get ascending paralysis. The paralysis is usually temporary, however. The risk of contracting Guillain-Barre from the vaccine is about one in a million patients, whereas contracting the condition as a complication of influenza is much higher, Horne said.

The schedules for the vaccinations in various communities are available by going to www.albertahealthservices.ca/influenza, or by calling Health Link Alberta at 1-866-408-5465.