H1N1 flu outbreak prompts Alberta to open mass immunization clinics
Nationalpost.com
December 31, 2013
EDMONTON — Alberta is to open mass immunization clinics in four communities to deal with a surge of flu cases.
As of Friday, Alberta Health Services says there were 662 confirmed flu cases in the province, including 621 people with the H1N1 form of the virus.
Alberta Health Services says the clinics are to open Thursday in Calgary and Slave Lake and on Friday in Edmonton and Grande Prairie.
If the surge continues more mass immunization clinics could open.
Dr. Gerry Predy, senior medical officer of health, says Albertans can get a free flu shot at the clinics, at pharmacies or at family physician offices.
Predy has said this H1N1 strain has been around for about five years and hits people in their 30s, 40s and 50s harder than seniors, who usually get sick from other strains.
At the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, the pediatric general medicine unit is no longer admitting new patients and current patients are not being transferred from one department to another to try to prevent further spread of H1N1, an Alberta Health Services spokesman said.
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