Flu clinics, pharmacies see line ups, run short of vaccine

People in Edmonton continue to line up to get a flu shot as immunization clinics re-opened this morning.

About 50 people lined up at the East Edmonton Health Clinic before the doors even opened while some people left the line up at the Mill Woods Public Health Centre after being told the wait for a flu shot would be 2.5 hours.

Many pharmacies, such as the Shoppers Drug Mart at the Marketplace at Callingwood on 178th Street and 69th Avenue ran out of the vaccine altogether.

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"With our kids at their age we just thought it was a good idea to do it now ... especially now that it seems to have a higher profile in the news," said Darcy Talma, at the East Edmonton Health Clinic.

Dr. Gerry Predy, senior medical officer of health with Alberta Health Services said it wasn't the province's intent to build flu frenzy.

"All we wanted to do is to be sure people were aware of what the situation was because if we didn't tell the public then we'd be accused of hiding something."

So far Alberta has seen about a thousand lab-confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu strain with five people dying.

Last year there were close to 29,000 cases of flu and 37 people died.

In all of Canada, 2,000 to 8,000 people die every year after contracting influenza.