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According to Reuters, the Canadian
government has apologized for sending a large shipment of body bags to
aboriginal communities in northern Canada bracing
for new outbreaks of the H1N1 flu. Aboriginal leaders said the body-bag
delivery shows the government has already given up on fighting H1N1 in their
communities. They expressed outrage at getting body bags instead of sufficient
resources to deal with the flu. The government has ordered a probe into the
shipments to reserves in northern Manitoba, which are bracing for a repeat of
H1N1 flu outbreaks that hit some of the isolated villages earlier in the year. Health Canada said it regretted the alarm caused by the
shipments. The agency said it routinely restocks medical
supplies to help the isolated communities "prepare for unknown and
unforeseen events" such as pandemics and plane crashes, but the shipment
was far more than needed. The controversy coincided with a report that the
first major outbreaks of H1N1 virus of the new flu
season in Canada have hit remote
aboriginal communities on Vancouver Island on the
Pacific Coast. No deaths have been reported, and most of the people who have
become sick have suffered "fairly mild" symptoms, according to the
report, according to the on-line journal of the Canadian
Medical Association. Health experts say factors such as close living conditions;
poverty and poor sanitation are likely to
contribute to fast transmission of H1N1 in aboriginal communities.
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