Update Provided on H1N1 Deaths

The Honourable Jerome Kennedy, Minister of Health and Community Services, and Dr. Faith Stratton, Chief Medical Officer of Health, today provided an update regarding the seven H1N1 deaths that have been reported and six additional deaths that are being reviewed by the Chief Medical Examiner to assess the role H1N1 may have played in these deaths. This review is separate from an ongoing evaluation of the continuum of care individuals received from the time they presented to a clinic up to and including the time of their death.

�As I have previously publicly stated, a review by medical professionals is ongoing to ensure we are accurately capturing and reporting the role H1N1 infection may have played in any of the recent deaths,� said Minister Kennedy. �This review is essential to ensuring we are producing the information required by the Public Health Agency of Canada for surveillance purposes, while at the same time accurately reflecting a true picture of whether H1N1 was the primary cause of death or was a factor that may have contributed to death.�

To date, the province has reported a total of seven deaths related to H1N1 and these are listed on the Public Health Agency of Canada�s website. The deaths were reported on an individual basis, when at the time of announcement the deaths were attributed to H1N1 infection.

In addition to the seven deaths that have been reported to date, the Department of Health and Community Services has now received laboratory confirmation that there have been an additional six deaths of individuals who tested positive, either before or after death, for H1N1. All of these cases are being examined by a group of medical specialists, being lead by the province�s Chief Medical Examiner, to assess the role that H1N1 might have played in causing death. It is expected that this review will be concluded next week at which time more information will be made publicly available.

In the process of reporting H1N1 deaths, some attending physicians expressed concern about whether or not a death was primarily caused by H1N1. In response to the need to ensure the information being publicly reported was complete and accurate, the province introduced a further quality check to validate testing results of the public health laboratory and to ensure it appropriately categorized deaths that have been primarily caused by H1N1 versus those that occurred with H1N1 as a contributing factor only.

�The purpose of the review is to differentiate if an individual died as a direct result of H1N1 infection or if H1N1 was a contributing factor only,� said Minister Kennedy. �The purpose of this review is to ensure that we report accurate information to the public about the true cause of death.�

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) defines a H1N1 related death as a death occurring in any person with laboratory-confirmed pandemic (H1N1) influenza with no period of complete recovery between illness and death. This information is reported by all jurisdictions across the country on a bi-weekly basis from a surveillance perspective. Any death occurring in a person with influenza like illness (ILI) who has a laboratory confirmed H1N1 infection will be reported to the PHAC for public health purposes. The PHAC reporting, however, does not specify whether or not H1N1 was the primary cause of death.

�As we get further information regarding H1N1 and are able to analyze the data, we will release it to the public,� said Dr. Stratton. �This detailed information will continue to be reported to Public Health Agency of Canada and will be used for surveillance and research purposes across the country. Tracking and reporting this kind of information is essential to ensuring public health officials are able to understand the nature of pandemic illness which will ultimately lead to better planning and protection of health for the population in the future.�

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Media contact:
Tansy Mundon
Director of Communications
Department of Health and Community Services
709-729-1377, 685-2646
tansymundon@gov.nl.ca