Thirty-four more people admitted High-risk flu criteria broadened again DEANA STOKES SULLIVAN The Telegram

The province's chief medical officer of health Dr. Faith Stratton and Health Minister Jerome Kennedy update the media on how the H1N1 outbreak is being handled Tuesday in St. John's. — Photo by Joe Gibbons/The Telegram

Thirty-four more people were admitted to hospitals in the province between Monday and Tuesday with respiratory infections, suspected to be from the H1N1 flu virus.

Dr. Faith Stratton, the province's chief medical officer of health, said these latest admissions took place over a 24-hour-period from 8 a.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The total number of patients being treated in hospital for respiratory illnesses Tuesday was 84, including nine in intensive care units (ICUs) and five on ventilators to assist with their breathing.

Stratton said the patients on ventilators and in ICUs are mostly in western, central and northern regions, with one in the eastern region.

She said most patients admitted to hospital over the last couple of weeks with confirmed H1N1 influenza have been between 15 and 45 years of age, the young adult and middle adult age groups.

"The ones in ICU are the middle age group," Stratton said.

The province, meanwhile, announced plans Tuesday to expand the priority groups for the H1N1 vaccine, beginning Thursday.

The groups added are:

Hospital in-patients under 65 years of age with one or more chronic health conditions;

School-aged children from Kindergarten to Grade 3;

Individuals between the ages of 25 and 39 with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis;

Individuals undergoing active cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation;

Transplant patients, including pre-transplant patients on a wait list and directed by their physician to receive the vaccine and post-transplant patients in the last two years.

To be eligible for vaccinations, patients with chronic illnesses will be required to show proof of active treatment, such as prescriptions, labelled medications or insurance forms.

Kennedy said if individuals who fit into these categories are unable to be vaccinated due to the limited supply of vaccine this week, they will be prioritized for vaccination following next week's vaccine shipment.

He said the province will receive 7,500 doses of vaccine this week, and believes that will have enough to begin vaccinating this expanded group, considering school children under 10 years of age are only given half a dose of vaccine.

The minister said the province is slowly starting to move into the group of people under 65 years of age with chronic conditions. It's estimated that there are about 100,000 people between 25 and 65 years of age in the province in this category.

Kennedy asked that the public be patient. "We're trying to do the best we can to balance the high risk groups with the availability or limited availability of the vaccine we have," he said.

Kennedy said he has a stack of e-mails at his office from people pleading with him to address their individual cases.

"It's tough on me reading these e-mails but, at the end of the day, we have to set parameters and guidelines," he said.

He said some doctors have said they can help by vaccinating patients in their offices, but again with a limited supply of the vaccine, the province can't leave it to individual doctors to determine who can be vaccinated.

"The difficulty, as you see here today, is that as a minister or as a regional health authority, you can't choose individual cases. So, what we're trying to deal with are groups. We're trying to logically and systematically move our way through the groups and primary school-aged children. Hopefully next week we can move into elementary school- aged children," Kennedy said.

Stratton said the next batch of 7,500 vaccines for the province was expected to arrive in St. John's on a early flight this morning.

She said unadjuvanted vaccines for pregnant women have been sent out to the health districts throughout the province and those immunizations should also be possible this week.

Kennedy couldn't say Tuesday how much vaccine the province will receive next week. He said more information on that should be known around the end of this week.

dss@thetelegram.com