Thursday, August 06, 2009

H1N1 drugs available to First Nations, official says

From the Winnipeg Free Press:
A senior Manitoba Health official said its stockpile of H1N1 antiviral drugs was made available to Health Canada for distribution among the province's First Nation communities.

Terry Goertzen, an assistant deputy minister of health, said Ottawa did not request from Manitoba more than the 45 courses, or 450 doses, of Tamiflu it was given in mid-May to deal with an H1N1 outbreak on reserves.

"When it comes to health care on First Nation communities, (Ottawa) takes the lead," Goertzen said, adding no special requests for additional antiviral drugs were made to deal with the outbreak in the Island Lake communities.

Chiefs from Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point are demanding to know why their communities received next to no antiviral drugs when the northwestern Ontario First Nation of Sandy Lake was given 1,800 doses to control an H1N1 outbreak there. ...more

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