Health officials criticized for child flu death secrecy

‘The most important resource that public health officials have is public trust’

One child has died of the flu in Hamilton this season, confirmed the public health department — days after leading the community to believe the number could be as high as four.

The disclosure comes after The Spectator contacted the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario’s office about public health’s refusal to reveal exactly how many children have died of influenza this flu season.

Saying it was protecting the privacy of those who died, the department would only go so far to say Feb. 9 that there had been at least one pediatric flu death and as many as four deaths.

“It’s ridiculous to call that a privacy concern,” said Ann Cavoukian, former Ontario information and privacy commissioner. “You have the exact number. Why don’t you report the exact number ... The public has a right to know.”

Canadian ethicist Arthur Schafer said he was “mystified” by public health’s “refusal to provide timely and accurate information” on pediatric flu deaths, calling it “inconsistent with the fundamental principles of public health.”

“The most important resource that public health officials have is public trust,” said Schafer, founding director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba.

“That trust must be earned. When public health officials opt for secrecy instead of openness and prefer vagueness to accurate information, they undermine their own credibility and flirt with a serious erosion of public trust.”

The family of Robert John “Bobby” Smylie has said the 10-year-old Waterdown boy died Feb. 4 after getting the flu.

The avid athlete who dreamed of winning the provincial jiu-jitsu championship got sick on Jan. 30 and went to the family doctor the next day.

He took a turn for the worse Feb. 3 and was taken to Joseph Brant Hospital, where he was seen and sent home.

At first, the Grade 4 student at Guy B. Brown Elementary School seemed to be on the mend with his dad, Rob Smylie, describing him as chatty as they cheered on the Toronto Raptors while watching the basketball game on television Feb. 4.

But at 2 p.m., he suddenly started vomiting and was taken back to Joseph Brant.

He was critically ill within an hour, and a medical team from McMaster Children’s Hospital rushed to Burlington to try to save him. He was taken to McMaster by ambulance around 6:30 p.m. and died at 9:40 p.m.

Smylie said Bobby had developed bacterial pneumonia, which can be a severe influenza complication.

“I know that the ripple from his passing has affected so many people in so many places,” said Smylie in his eulogy prepared for the funeral Feb. 9 at Grace Anglican Church.

“Bobby was a delight of a person. He was inquisitive and talkative about everything ... I think this zest for life is what made people gravitate to him so much.”

After Bobby’s death, the public health department’s refusal to tell the community how many children have died this flu season was in stark contrast to the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health department.

It alerted the public Feb. 9 about two pediatric flu deaths in Guelph elementary schoolchildren.

“It’s due to privacy reasons why we don’t give specifics,” Dr. Ninh Tran, a Hamilton associate medical officer of health, told The Spectator Feb. 9.

However, Cavoukian says the Personal Health Information Act requires only identifiable information like names or OHIP numbers be kept private.

“The privacy issues start and end with

It’s due to privacy reasons why we don’t give specifics DR. NINH TRAN

the identifiability of the data,” said Cavoukian, who leads the Privacy by Design Centre of Excellence at Ryerson University.

“Reporting the incidence of deaths from flu, I think that is actually a public good to let the public know ... We want to get information out to the public.”

Instead, Hamilton’s public health department said fewer than five children had died from a strain of influenza included in the flu shot.

It would not say if those who died had been vaccinated.

It raised the possibility that as many as four children died of flu here this season, which would be a worrisome number considering as of Feb. 3, five of the 130 flu deaths in Canada were pediatric. “Should the public be alarmed?

“Is the Hamilton region experiencing an extraordinary outbreak of pediatric flu deaths?”

Schafer asked to illustrate how only giving vague information can raise questions.

The Spectator reached out to the office of the current Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Brian Beamish Wednesday.

The local public health department released the exact data less than 24 hours later.

The commissioner’s office called the newspaper Thursday to confirm the information had been released to the public.

Hamilton medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson offered her condolences to family and friends “for this tragic loss of a young member of our community.”

“I appreciate the concern of the community — it is always difficult when we learn of the death of a young member of our community.”

She recommends Hamiltonians get vaccinated.

“It is still important for people to consider the seasonal flu shot, even if there is sometimes lower efficacy,” she said.

“Unfortunately, it is the case that people do die from influenza and its complications as well as other infectious diseases.”