Vaccination campaign starts earlier than usual

Montreal public health authorities are bracing for a potentially vicious flu season this year, given that Australia has just emerged from one that started earlier than usual and was more severe than expected.

For the first time, nurses will administer flu shots that protect against four virus strains rather than three to adults.

Previously, only children received what are called “quadrivalent” shots.

Also this year, authorities will forgo the intranasal spray for the standard needle because the spray lacks one of the components of this season’s vaccine.

On Monday, the Quebec Health Ministry launched an awareness campaign on the radio aimed at people who are vulnerable to complications from the flu, including those suffering from diabetes, cancer, a weakened immune system as well as heart, lung and kidney disease.

The government is starting the publicity campaign earlier than previous years in the hope of boosting the number of people who will get the vaccine.

Dr. Renée Paré, in charge of immunization services for the Montreal Public Health Department, noted that since flu strains mutate each year, vaccine manufacturers must constantly readjust their vaccines, something they did this year following the flu in Australia.

“I don’t know if in Australia they had the chance to adjust their vaccine, but we did succeed in adjusting the vaccine,” Paré said. “It will surely take into account the strains that have been in circulation.”

The flu started circulating in Australia two months earlier than usual. The number of flu-related deaths was higher than usual, but not alarmingly so, epidemiologists say. And just because Australia might have had a more severe flu season does not mean North America will also have a bad one.

Paré sought to dismiss the myth that the flu vaccine can actually cause the flu.

“The vaccine contains pieces of dead virus, so we can’t get sick because of the vaccine itself,” she explained. “We can have a reaction to a vaccine, especially the first time we’ve had a vaccine and our immune system reacts for a day or two. That’s possible. But there are also lots of viruses that circulate that are not the flu.”

On Nov. 1, the Quebec government will begin its annual flu vaccination campaign for vulnerable patients.

In Montreal, nurses plan to administer a total of 450,000 doses in nursing homes and CLSC clinics.

The shots are free for the following groups:

■ Children from six months to 17 years old who have certain chronic diseases.

■ Adults who have chronic diseases (including pregnant women regardless of the stage of pregnancy).

■ Pregnant women in their second and third trimesters.

■ People aged 75 and over.

■ Family members who live in the same household as a child under six months of age or a person who is at a higher risk of being hospitalized.

■ Health care workers.

■ Healthy children from six to 23 months old.

■ Healthy people from 60 to 74 years old.

Last year, the Health Ministry at first excluded healthy infants and seniors from free flu shots, but the Coalition Avenir Québec government reversed that decision.

Flu season typically lasts from December to March.

The flu shot does not confer fullproof protection, and is known to offer 20 to 30 per cent protection against the AH3N2 strain, Paré said.