Health unit prepared against H1N1 following reported case in southern Ontario

A Thunder Bay District Health Unit manager says they aren't worried about a reported case of H1N1 in southern Ontario.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health issued a media release that said officials have detected a case of an H1N1 variant in a man located in the southwest of the province. It was reported that the man had been in contact with pigs.

The influenza virus is commonly found in animals and is called a variant when it infects humans.

But Maureen Twigg, Manager of the Sexual Health Programs at the TBDHU, said an infection that transfers from animals to humans is rare.

Twigg said when H1N1 broke out a few years ago they didn’t know much about the virus but have since learned enough to develop a vaccine to help deal with the possible deadline infection. She said there isn’t as much urgency with this case because they have developed that vaccine.

“We didn’t know what we were facing when H1N1 first came out and now we have had a chance to study it and we’ve had a chance to see what the vaccine can do,” Twigg said. “That’s probably the biggest change. We now know what we’re looking at so now we can take precautions.”

The health unit’s first flu clinic will be on Oct. 15 at the Da Vinci Centre and will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“This year’s flu vaccine is a trivalent vaccine,” she said. “The three are called A California, A Victoria and A Wisconsin. We recommend that this year’s vaccine is something that residents should be getting. But hand washing is the best prevention measure against influenza.”