flu clinic

Public flu clinics in the Cypress Health Region and across Saskatchewan will soon be back up and running after a temporary hold last week.

The clinics were suspended last Friday after Health Canada called for a review of vaccines made by Novartis when a batch shipped to Europe was found to have clumping virus particles in them. Today, Ottawa confirmed the vaccines are safe and have told the provinces that they can get back to using them.

Full interview with Dr. David Torr

"We're starting the clinics as early as tomorrow, so we're really working hard on getting everything back on track so that we keep the program as we had planned previously," said Dr. David Torr, Consulting Medical Health Officer for the Cypress Health Region. "We've lost pretty much only a week, but we shall catch up."

Clinics scheduled for tomorrow in Herbert at the New Horizons Centre and Eastend at the Wolf Willow Health Centre are set to go ahead, and Dr. Torr adds they are working to re-schedule the clinics that were cancelled in the suspension.

"They just need to either check on our website or call in to their local public health office and find out when those have been rescheduled, but any of the clinics that have been scheduled from November 1st onwards will be continuing as they were previously scheduled," he added. "It's just these ones that we missed in the past week that we need to catch up on."

Dr. Torr says they were moving along on target for their vaccinations prior to the suspension, and adds those who have already received their flu shots do not need to be re-vaccinated.

"There was no recall on the vaccine," he adds. "It's still the same vaccine, it's still very efficient and efficaceous, so anybody who has already had vaccines do not need to get re-vaccinated. They are already well-covered with that."

The vaccine is free for all Saskatchewan residents and Dr. Torr is encouraging everyone to get immunized, especially those in high-risk groups including seniors and those with chronic illnesses.

The schedule of flu clinics and updates on any that are rescheduled can be found on cypresshealth.ca.