Prescriptions for antiviral drugs to combat the H1N1 flu have been flying off British Columbia pharmacy shelves for weeks and starting Monday there will finally be a new tool to fight the flu in the province.
The H1N1 vaccine begins a slow rollout with only the most vulnerable able to stand in line.
Provincial medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said the province is about four weeks deep into it's second wave of the H1N1 flu.
"It hasn't peaked yet," he said. "The sooner the peak comes the better to be honest."
There are about 220,000 doses ready to distribute in the first week to pregnant women, those under 65 who have chronic health conditions and those living in small remote communities, including First Nations reserves.
British Columbia has been on the leading edge of the illness and without a vaccine to help fight the flu, Kendall said their plan to use the antiviral drugs to lessen flu symptoms seems to have worked.
Health officials said over 9,000 prescriptions of antiviral drugs were filled in the province last week, a 78 per cent increase from the week before.
Although for those who do get vaccinated, Kendall said it will be 10 days before people will have a sufficient response to protect them from the flu.
"Even if they do become ill, they'll have a less serious illness that they would without the vaccine," Kendall said in an interview.
Dr. Evan Adams, B.C.'s aboriginal physician adviser, said the province has been very lucky to only have had two severe First Nations flu cases on reserves and possibility a third.
He said the severity of the flu has been nothing close to what First Nations reserves have been experiencing in Northern Manitoba, Northern Ontario and Nunavut.
Adams said the goal is to keep the well away from the unwell and that means telling people who have mild illness not to go to a doctor and not to insist on getting tested to confirm H1N1.
"I think Canadians generally don't know that H1N1 is widespread, it's in a community near you and we expect to find it in every city and probably every larger town in the country."
In remote First Nations communities, which are the first on the list to be vaccinated, Adams said they expect some unusually severe cases of flu.
Kendall said different health regions in the province are still finalizing how the vaccine will be distributed.
Regional health authority websites and the Immunize B.C. website will have the latest information, including a flu clinic locator, for those who want to get vaccinated.
The government has said the vaccine will be available for everyone who wants it, although health officials have asked those who are healthy enough to wait until the third week of distribution to make sure those who are more susceptible get their vaccination first.
"We've been lucky," Adams added. "In Manitoba they've been very distracted by their large number of severe (aboriginal) cases. Here we've had hardly any so we've had time to focus on our organizing."
