The NWT Health and Social Services Authority The authority is recommending people get vaccinated early because the flu season is starting early in the NWT with an H1N1 type A flu.
This year, it no longer offers the nasal flu vaccine for children between the ages of two and 17 at zero cost because of the latest recommendations on preferred vaccines from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).
The decision to discontinue free nasal vaccines comes as the prevailing recommendation from NACI that the ALIVE nasal spray is not more effective than the trivalent influenza vaccine, administered by needle, said Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola.
NACI hands down its recommendations to all the provinces and territories and in 2011 recommended the nasal spray as more effective and preferential over the trivalent for people between the ages of two and 17.
In 2016, they changed their recommendation after more research indicated the vaccine was no longer the preferred choice.
The health authority orders its vaccines ahead of time and did not cancel its 2016 orders, but decided it would no longer participate in a bulk purchase of the nasal spray because all the vaccines are equally effective, she said.
Parents who wish to receive the nasal spray for their children can order them for $18.
The nasal spray produced significant wastage and some vaccines would expire in January, well before the end of flu season, said Kandola.
Often, batches of the spray would be delivered to the communities and a small portion of vaccines would be used and the remainder, packaged together and with shorter a expiry than needle vaccines, had to be discarded, she said.
The NWT has one supplier, offering a high-dose vaccine that is used for people over the age of 65 and covers two influenza A types and two influenza B types.
In 2015, the health authority gave 986 nasal vaccines. By 2017, it had only given 652, she said.
Vaccination rates in the territory generally run around 20 per cent and the body takes two weeks to build antibodies in response to the vaccine. Teens and youth are less likely to get vaccinated, but can be hit hard by H1N1 viruses, she said.
“The last thing you want to do is spend your Christmas with the flu. It's a momentary flinch but they'll get protection,” she said.
H1N1 has been included in the vaccine for several years and people who aren't vaccinated can sometimes end up in the hospital or the intensive care unit, said Kandola.
Herd immunity is also required to protect newborns, who cannot be vaccinated until eight months of age, and for grandparents and people whose immunity is compromised.
“You don't want to be spreading the flu virus and putting newborns, grandparents and people with chronic diseases at risk,” she said.
Yellowknife Vaccination Clinics:
Nov. 21 at Centre Square Mall, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Nov. 22 at Centre Square Mall, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Nov. 24 at CO-OP, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Nov. 30 at Centre Square Mall, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
A full list of vaccination clinics is available on the GNWT's Health and Social Services site.