First Nations Health Council H1N1 Reports Released

Remember way back to H1N1? During H1N1, the Tripartite partners developed new approaches to try and reduce the number of First Nations people in BC who got sick or were hospitalized because of the flu.

The H1N1 influenza pandemic is over but to help us learn from the pandemic response, we have conducted a pair of evaluations, the results of which are being released today. The lessons drawn from the pandemic response will not only help for future pandemic planning, but also help us to respond to each and every flu season. Influenza still causes illness and contributes to deaths in our communities every year.

The Tripartite partners have gone back through administrative health records to look at the frequency of flu-like symptoms in First Nations communities. The results are being released in a report entitled “Tripartite Evaluation of the H1N1 Tripartite Pandemic Response – Quantitative Report”.  Tripartite Evaluation of the H1N1 Tripartite Pandemic Response – Quantitative Report | pdf download |

The Tripartite partners are also releasing lessons learned from key stakeholders and community members in a report entitled “Tripartite Evaluation of the H1N1 Tripartite Pandemic Response – Qualitative Report” .  To do the qualitative evaluation we conducted interviews with over 200 First Nations community members, community health nurses, community health representatives, health directors, and drug/alcohol councillors from fifteen communities as well as public health officials involved in the H1N1 response. Tripartite Evaluation of the H1N1 Tripartite Pandemic Response – Qualitative Report | pdf download |

In releasing these reports, the Tripartite Partners would like to honour the knowledge that each and every community participant, health care provider, community leader and public health official shared as well as the hard work of these individuals during the pandemic that made the response to H1N1 such a success.

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