Never before has an entire population been incited to receive a vaccination against a flu virus. However, today (October 26), the campaign begins to vaccinate people against the influenza virus, H1N1.
While priorities vary from province to province, Quebec has chosen to begin the vaccination with health care workers and those involved in emergency services like police, fireman, ambulance and bus drivers.
In addition, those individuals that are hospitalised or living in institutions will also receive the vaccination this week in Quebec. Then, people at risk in the general population will follow.
Pregnant women should wait for the vaccine without the adjuvant, which has not yet been approved by Health Canada.
It is expected that there will be shortages of the vaccine. In Quebec, only 400 000 doses of the vaccine are available this week. The governement plans to send 3 million doses per week to each of the provinces.
They are still trying to convince people to get vaccinated as their goal is to have 75 to 80% of the population protected against the virus. The pandemic is expected to affect 35% of the population and cause 8 000 deaths.
For more information consult the Quebec Pandemic website.