New Brunswick’s Department of Health is planning to expand its seasonal flu vaccination program. The decision of expanding the program is made to cover all children under 18. The expansion of the program will bring the cost of the campaign to more than $1 million. This would contribute to a rise of about 70% in the cost of the campaign.

Last fall, the Department had achieved huge success in its H1N1 campaign.

"We did a lot of research by ringing parents at the end of the vaccination campaign", said Dr. Paul Van Buynder, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health.

This year the campaign is expected to cover large number of people, mainly due to the increasing awareness of the parents. The Government is expected to purchase more than 300,000 doses of seasonal flu vaccine this year, while the figure was only 225,000 last year.

The H1N1 vaccine will be added in seasonal flu shot, which will be available in October.

The campaign targets children as they are the main source of infection to their parents, grandparents and friends in schools. The H1N1 vaccination rate in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario has been very low, as compared against the rate in New Brunswick.