HALIFAX - Nova Scotia will move up seasonal flu shots by about a week for people aged 65 and older -- as well as residents of long-term care facilities -- before the province begins its vaccination program for swine flu sometime in early November.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief public health officer, said Friday that the seasonal flu shots would be made available beginning Oct. 5.
Strang said the decision was based on the best scientific evidence available and would protect those most at risk for H1N1 and seasonal flu.
"That science has shown that seniors are at low risk for getting H1N1, but they are at greatest risk for becoming seriously ill from seasonal flu and they are the individuals who most need the protection from seasonal flu vaccine," said Strang.
He said the government expected to shift back to seasonal flu immunization in early January after the swine flu program.
Strang noted that the situation around H1N1 and the government's immunization programs is evolving.
"If new information becomes available we will take that into account and if need be we will adjust our immunization programs accordingly," he said. "It's all about who's at risk from what, and the right people getting the right vaccine at the most appropriate time."
On Thursday, New Brunswick announced that it will move up its seasonal flu program to the first three weeks of October, then follow it with H1N1 shots in November.
That province's deputy chief medical officer of health, Dr. Paul Van Buynder, said officials are hoping to avoid confusion when the swine flu vaccine becomes available in November.
And Newfoundland and Labrador announced Friday that it will also offer seasonal flu shots in October as its Health Department recommends that anyone considered to be most at risk get the vaccination.
Dr. Faith Stratton, the chief medical officer of health, says the swine flu vaccine is expected to be offered by November in Newfoundland and Labrador, but it may be available earlier, depending on how the disease spreads.
"Public health experts across Canada continue to evaluate the most effective way to protect Canadians from both seasonal and H1N1 influenza," she said in a news release.
"It is important to protect those most at risk for complications from influenza and we are making these recommendations based on the best research and epidemiology currently available."
Nova Scotia's approach is closest to that of Ontario, which also moved its seasonal flu campaign for seniors to October in the face of unpublished data suggesting the seasonal flu shot might raise the risk of catching swine flu.
Information from studies in British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario appears to suggest people who got seasonal flu shots last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as those who didn't.
Strang said information from the studies, along with such factors as logistics and what's anticipated from the epidemiology, played a role in Nova Scotia's approach to immunization.
He said the study findings were preliminary and "by no means conclusive or definitive."
Strang said the best advice he could give was that getting vaccinated remains the best defence against both seasonal and swine flu.
"I think at the end of the day people should have confidence in both vaccines," he said.
Nova Scotia has 385,000 doses of vaccine for seasonal flu and will have 1.4 million doses of vaccine for swine flu, Strang said.
