HKPR health unit prepares for autumn respiratory illness season

DAN CEARNS The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPR) has been preparing to handle the annual Autumn respiratory illness season.

At a meeting of the HKPR board, on Thursday, September 19th, local medical officer of health, Dr. Natalie Bocking told members “work has been happening for the last couple of months,” to prepare the health unit to handle this period.

One of the ways the health unit has been preparing is by launching a new online dashboard related to respiratory illnesses. COVID-19 and Influenza are two examples of respiratory illnesses which impact the lungs and airways.

Dr. Bocking noted, their previous dashboard was “paused over the summer,” as the health unit made changes to it.

“It will look different than previous dashboards, as the information, we have available to report on, has changed,” Dr. Bocking explained.

She stated, the Ontario government, ending their wastewater surveillance program, as an example of information [which] is no longer available.

The health unit has also been holding tabletop exercises with health sector partners, as part of a new provincial requirement. Dr. Bocking explained, these sessions “incorporate hospital and primary care, paramedics, [and] some community-based organizations [which] are at the table.” They also provide a walkthrough of what to do when “our health system starts to become overwhelmed.”

As always, the health unit is also prepared to provide public education on respiratory illnesses.

The health unit also has three vaccines to help distribute. Those include vaccines for COVID-19, Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

“This is a bit complicated this year and is going to continue to get a bit [more] complicated. So we’ll need to have some helpful information for folks, to help interpret, when do I get what vaccine and what vaccine is available. Where do I go and at what time,” Dr. Bocking said.