For many Nova Scotians seeking medical advice on swine flu, it's been a wearisome week of mixed messages from provincial officials.
The government's pandemic planning, months in the making, was made more difficult last week due to a low supply of vaccine needed for the second wave of the H1N1 virus.
But for some critics, that doesn't explain the confusing directions given by Nova Scotia's health experts.
"I know that what we tell you today seems to change the next day and that's frustrating," Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, told a Halifax news conference Friday.
"It's just that this is the reality of responding to an evolving pandemic."
At an earlier news briefing, Strang was asked by about native communities. He bristled somewhat, saying putting aboriginals in a priority group would be "stigmatizing" them.
Aboriginal people are now included in the group of citizens considered to be in the high-risk category, after high rates of illness struck First Nations households and workplaces earlier this year.
Then there was unclear information about whether or not Nova Scotians should go to hospital emergency departments with swine flu-related concerns.
On Thursday, Dr. Ken Buchholz, senior physician adviser for the province's Health Department, said people with severe flu symptoms should call 911, or go to their local emergency room.
That was a departure from earlier advice.
Severe flu symptoms include high fever, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain, severe vomiting and confusion.
On Saturday, Health Minister Maureen MacDonald said she realizes people are frustrated but the sudden changes.
"It's hard to anticipate, for example, that you're going to have a significant reduction in the vaccine available from the manufacturer," she said.
The other thing that's been difficult "is the evolution of the scientific and medical information that will help us make the best decisions about who should get the vaccine, and in what sequence," MacDonald said.
The minister added that on the public awareness front, "there are things we've done very well."
She said she's been stopped in grocery stores and on the street by people who've indicated they've been well informed by the government's communications system.
"I know it is difficult — it can be confusing for people," MacDonald acknowledged.
"I would like to speak to people in the province as a whole," she said. "And what I say is that this undoubtedly is one of the biggest challenges that our public health system . . . has been confronted with. This is the largest immunization the country has ever experienced, and it's happening as the second wave of (H1N1) flu hits us, which complicates it further.
"We are doing the best that we can to deliver the vaccine that we have to the people who need it most, first.
"We will continue to communicate with people on how to protect themselves (but) there will be some frustrations."
The vaccine supply snafu means that starting Monday, only certain people in high-risk groups will be immunized. These people include: pregnant women, children six months to under age five, First Nations people and health-care workers.
Assessment clinics operating this weekend are not providing flu vaccines.
Those under age 65 with chronic health conditions are no longer on the list of people deemed most at risk.
MacDonald said the provincial government is asking people to be patient.
Public health officials in Canada have said that despite the pandemic alert, the vast majority of H1N1 virus cases in this country have been mild.
So far, one person in Nova Scotia has died from H1N1.
The regular seasonal flu kills about 4,000 people, mostly seniors, in Canada every year.
In Ontario, a Niagara region woman died from the H1N1 virus last week, marking that province's third confirmed death from the flu in just over a week.
(Halifax Chronicle Herald)