# 3347
While the reasons are far from clear, it does appear that aboriginal (First Nations) people in Manitoba, Canada are being hit with serious bouts of the H1N1 swine flu more than other Manitobans.
Helen Branswell brings us the details.
Follow the link to read the story in it’s entirety.
Swine flu is hitting First Nations in Manitoba harder, province's top doc says
By Helen Branswell@Associated Press
Monday, June 15, 2009
TORONTO — Manitoba's top doctor says it does appear that swine flu is hitting First Nations people in the province harder than non-aboriginal Manitobans.
Dr. Joel Kettner said numbers of cases are still small and analyses have to be treated with caution, but the impression created by the number of medical evacuations from remote northern communities seems to reflect a real situation.
"It appears from our information that . . . (among) our most severe cases, there's an over-representation from a population and demographic perspective, of First Nations and aboriginal people," Kettner, the chief medical officer of health, said Monday in an interview from Winnipeg.
He said his staff have been analyzing hospital admissions and other types of data to see who is getting sick and who among them is getting most severely ill.
