阿省猪流感住院率/死亡率两倍于全国平均

awake · 发表于 2009-11-25 23:14

http://www.canada.com/health/Alb ... /2257947/story.html

Alberta's H1N1 flu rate nearly double national average
0 A5 a4 L8 C: P) UProvincial Liberals blame bungled vaccination plan for elevated H1N1 death rate

By Jason Fekete And Michelle Lang, Calgary HeraldNovember 23, 2009

EDMONTON — Alberta's per-capita hospitalization and death rates from the H1N1 flu are approaching double the national average, sparking the provincial Liberals to again accuse the Alberta government controversial immunization program for killing people.

On Monday, the first day H1N1 vaccination clinics in Alberta were reopened to the general public, Liberal Leader David Swann demanded provincial Health Minister Ron Liepert accept responsibility for his government's bungled rollout and the deadly consequences for Albertans.

Swann said the Conservative government's decision to initially offer the vaccine to all Albertans — rather than just to high-risk groups as in other provinces, and as documented in Alberta's pandemic plan — prevented patients most at risk from getting immunized in a timely fashion.

"There's a connection there and, indeed, I think it's time for this minister to cowboy up and take responsibility for the mistakes of this ministry," Swann said Monday at the legislature.

"Do I believe that the minister has killed people? No. What I believe is his decisions to roll out the vaccination in a unique way has contributed to illness and death rates in this province and I think that's what we need to hold this minister accountable for."

Data compiled by the Public Health Agency of Canada and Statistics Canada, and crunched by the Liberals, reveal 42 people died in Alberta from the H1N1 flu up to Nov. 14, and 219 in all of Canada (Alberta's death toll has since risen to 47).

The province's death rate from H1N1 flu is 11.39 per million people — nearly double the national average of 6.49 and far above that of any other province with more than one million people.

Between April 2009 and Nov. 14, there were 893 hospitalizations in Alberta from the H1N1 flu — the number now sits at 1,042. That amounts to 242 hospitalizations per million people — again, far above the national average of 161 and second only to Quebec among the more populous provinces.

One H1N1 expert, however, said it's too early to read anything into the statistics.

Dr. Jim Dickinson, a University of Calgary professor, said the variation between jurisdictions in deaths and hospitalizations could be due to chance or even weather.

He noted the second wave of the pandemic spread from British Columbia to Alberta and headed east. Dickinson said it's possible Alberta's cooler weather allowed the virus to spread more efficiently and sicken more people, adding this province often gets seasonal influenza earlier and worse than some other provinces.

"It's premature to be saying it's due to anything we did or didn't do (with vaccinations)," said Dickinson. "It may just be that's how (the pandemic) spread."

The health minister conceded the province has learned some lessons and should have handled the rollout in a different manner.

But Liepert rejected the Liberal leader's assertions, noting far more Albertans die annually from the seasonal flu than what the province has experienced from the H1N1 outbreak.

"Over the past four or five weeks there have been some things, that I'm sure that if we had to do over, we'd do differently," Liepert said.

"There have been things said in the past four or five weeks that I'm sure individuals, if they had to do it over again, would say it differently, and I would put (Swann's) comments in that category."

He noted about 650,000 Albertans have been immunized and that by Christmas, everybody in the province wanting to get vaccinated will be able to get the shot, as the rollout is broadened to doctors' offices, pharmacists and workplaces.

Dr. Andre Corriveau, chief medical officer of health for the province, has called Swann's allegations "unfortunate," noting the vaccine was delivered to Alberta after the second wave of H1N1 began, so a lot of people who did become seriously ill or die wouldn't have had a chance to get immunized.

Swann, however, said "the numbers speak for themselves" and would like to see Corriveau and Liepert explain Alberta's high hospitalization and death rate.

The Alberta NDP, which has been quite critical of the government's rollout, said "the government needs to take responsibility" for failing to immunize high-risk groups first, but don't necessarily agree with Swann's accusations.

"I'm not prepared to go that far. That's a pretty serious allegation and I'd want to see a little bit more (of) item A caused outcome B," said NDP House leader Rachel Notley.

ssssss · 发表于 2009-11-26 19:04

怕怕怕怕怕怕

vilna · 发表于 2009-11-27 09:11

最近这些日子基本每天都新增死亡病例，很少有这天没有死亡的。

紫竹含泪 · 发表于 2009-12-9 20:44

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