Pandemic flu report overblown: health authority

The Vancouver Island Health Authority is blasting the Canadian Medical Association Journal over a website report published on Thursday that said a group of small communities on Vancouver Island'sWest Coast are in the midst of Canada's first pandemic outbreak of the fall flu season.

Leaders in Ahousat, located on an island north of Tofino off the west coast of Vancouver Island, said around 100 people in the community have been hit with theswine flu virus in recent weeks. Residents of Tofino have also reported a large number of cases in their community.

But VIHA medical health officer Dr. Charmaine Enns said that while there were a number of mild cases of H1N1 in the region, none needed hospitalization and 95 per cent of the cases didn't even require a visit to the doctor.

Enns said the CMAJ's article was not only irresponsible but also inflammatory, a charge to which the publication has yet to respond.

So far this year,six people in B.C. have died after contracting the swine flu, but all had other health conditions, according to health officials. Slightly more than 50 people have been hospitalized.