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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/11/11/mtl-children-vaccine-busses.html

Children to be bused to vaccination centres

Quebec health officials say they are close to setting up a system to bus schoolchildren to swine flu vaccination centres.

Putting together a vaccination plan involving more than one million school children is not an easy task, said Quebec's chief public health officer, Dr. Alain Poirier.

"A few details have to be fixed, but it's going in the right direction," he said at a news conference in Quebec City Wednesday.

The chief of health protection at Montreal's public health department, Dr. Terry-Nan Tannenbaum, said there is still a lot to figure out.

"There's the consent to be vaccinated; there's the consent to be transported; … there's making sure we have all the information, for instance, on allergies or other problems," said Tannenbaum.

One Montreal parent said the idea to bus students to clinics isn’t such a good one.

"Many children will be afraid," said Elise Desjardins, the mother of two school-age children.

She said children might be more at ease if they got the flu shot at their own school.

At the national assembly, Parti Québecois health critic Bernard Drainville said the plan sounds like a field trip destined for failure.

"It is obvious the solution is to do vaccinations in schools. Why aren't you doing it?" Drainville asked the Liberals during question period.

"[This is the way] to vaccinate the most students possible ... the most efficient way," replied Liberal Health Minister Yves Bolduc.

He went on to say that if the government slows down the vaccination process for schoolchildren, it will delay the rollout of vaccination for the rest of the population.

Three new deaths

On Wednesday, public health officials in the province confirmed three more deaths related to the H1N1 influenza A virus, which is responsible for the current swine flu pandemic.

That brings to 20 the number of flu-related deaths in Quebec since the second wave of swine flu began Aug. 30.

Only one person has died of symptoms directly relating to the swine flu, said Poirier.

"All the others had underlying conditions," Porier said.

There have been 923 confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu in Quebec so far in this second wave, Poirier said.

"That's the total number for the last two and half months," he said. "But most of them are out of the hospital."

Poirier also noted that 58 per cent of the 923 cases involve people 19 and under.

New vaccination centre in West Island

Health officials in Montreal have opened a second H1N1 vaccination centre in Montreal's West Island region.

The decision to open the centre at Spring Garden Elementary School in Dollard-des-Ormeaux five days ahead of schedule is an attempt to reduce lineups at the only other centre in the West Island — Allencroft Elementary in Beaconsfield, officials said.

"Monday and Tuesday, all the coupons [given to those waiting in line for flu shots] had been given out earlier in the day," said Montreal Public Health Department spokesperson Deborah Bonney. "That meant the register was filled right up 'til eight in the evening."

Officials at the West Island Health and Social Services Centre said the new centre was working well on its first day of operation.

"Things are going very, very smoothly," said spokesman Louis-Pascal Cyr. "People who are coming in are being put into the circuit right away."

Health agency president catches flu

Also on Wednesday, Montreal Health Officials pointed to one of their own as proof of why Quebecers should be vaccinated against the swine flu.

Montreal Health Agency president David Levine has come down with a case of the illness.

He felt the first symptoms of the flu over the weekend, officials said.

"He's doing everything that is written in the book," said Dr. Louise Ayotte of the Montreal Health Agency. "He stays home, takes a lot of liquids. It seems to be a mild to moderate H1N1.”

Levine was not in any of the priority groups for vaccination.

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