Halton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Bob Nosal reported Wednesday that the woman was the first Halton resident to die from the flu virus.

Nosal said the woman died within the last week and had been hospitalized with the virus. She had underlying health issues.

The woman is among 30 in Ontario — 101 across Canada, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) — to succumb to the virus since it made its appearance last spring.

While young children have the greatest likelihood of getting ill and being hospitalized, they have the least risk of death, according to Nosal. Seniors, however, who are said to have residual immunity due to previous exposure to the flu strain and therefore the least chance of contracting it, run the greatest risk of complications and death if they do get it.

Since Halton hit its second peak of the H1N1 virus over the past week or two, eight to 10 people are now being admitted to local hospitals daily with influenza-like symptoms, said Nosal. Many are kids, or adults with underlying medical conditions, who are generally released after 48 hours.

Nosal does not yet know how many of those patients have had confirmed cases of H1N1 as the testing for that takes a few days.

As of Wednesday, 22 people in Halton since the start of October have been hospitalized with confirmed H1N1 symptoms, three of whom remain in hospital.

With the recent spike in patients presenting influenza-like illnesses, local hospitals have started to set up flu assessment centres at their locations when there’s an overflow in the emergency rooms, said Nosal.

The decision was made locally to set up these centres on-site at the hospitals, though in a separate area from the emergency room, rather than in a standalone site in Halton, said Nosal. He said the centres are working.

“This is the peak period and we’re able to cope through it.”

Unadjuvanted vaccine available

The Region continues to offer H1N1 vaccination clinics for high priority groups. And starting today, it is making available unadjuvanted forms of the vaccine to pregnant women.

It will be offered at the public vaccination clinic at the Halton Regional Centre, 1151 Bronte Rd., in Oakville or through some physicians’ offices.

The Oakville clinic is open today from noon to 8 p. m. and tomorrow and Sunday from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m.

“We just got the (unadjuvanted) vaccine a couple of days ago (Tuesday) – an allotment of 3,000 doses,” said Nosal.

Nosal estimated that would be “more than enough” for Halton’s pregnant women. Based on average annual baby deliveries in Halton, the Region is assuming 5,000 women in Halton are pregnant at this time.

However, it’s likely the majority of them have already received the adjuvanted form of the H1N1 vaccine distributed over the past week-and-a-half, Nosal said. That’s because public health officials had advised pregnant women in the latter half of pregnancy or those with underlying medical conditions to not wait for the unadjuvanted form.

The adjuvant in Canada's H1N1 flu vaccine is an ingredient made of naturally occurring oil, water and vitamin E that boosts the body’s immune response and increases the vaccine effectiveness, according to PHAC. The unadjuvanted vaccine doesn’t contain this ‘booster’ element.

Nosal said both forms of the vaccine are safe for pregnant women.

“Pregnant women are not more likely to get the H1N1 flu virus than anyone else,” the Region said yesterday. “But when they do get it, they are about five times more likely to be hospitalized and about three times more likely to have serious complications. The risk of serious complications due to the H1N1 virus exists in all trimesters of pregnancy and increases as pregnancy advances.”

The reception of the unadjuvanted vaccine doses comes at a critical time for the Region’s public health department, which is running out of the adjuvanted vaccine.

“Certainly through Saturday, there should be no problem,” said Nosal. “I would think most likely we’ll be okay for Sunday, but no promises.”

He advised people to check the Region’s website, www.halton.ca , or call 311 to find out the status of clinics for next week. Today’s clinic in Milton runs from noon to 8 p. m. at New Life Church’s CYC Black Box Theatre, 824 Thompson Rd. Only the Oakville clinic is open this weekend.

Following provincial direction, the Region is only offering the H1N1 vaccine to six high priority groups: people under age 65 with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, healthy children ages six months to under five years, some health-care workers, people living in remote settings, and caregivers and household contacts of people in a high priority group who can’t be immunized such as infants under six months of age or those who may not respond to vaccines.