IQALUIT - Fifteen new, lab-confirmed cases of H1N1 "swine flu" in Nunavut could signal the beginning of the second wave of the outbreak, according to chief medical officer of health Dr. Isaac Sobol.

As of Dec. 1, the 15 new cases were all but one located in the Baffin Region. The Department of Health and Social Services would not say which specific communities the cases are located in. The single confirmed case outside the Baffin was in the Kivalliq region.

Sobol expressed disappointment that new cases had been detected.

"I was hoping that we'd have so many people vaccinated that we wouldn't see any of a second wave," he said.

More than 60 per cent of Nunavut's population was immunized during November's blitz of mass-vaccination clinics across the territory.

To reflect the probability that the new cases represent the second wave of the flu, the Department of Health and Social Services has started a new count for flu cases. From May 24 to Sept. 30 Nunavut had 598 lab-confirmed cases of H1N1. The 15 new cases are not being added to that total.

The new cases were detected because Nunavut has been testing one person in five who comes to a health centre with flu-like symptoms.

Also, flu tests are run on anyone who needs to be hospitalized because of any severe respiratory illness.

Along with the H1N1 vaccinations, the mass-vaccination clinics also inoculated people for the more usual seasonal flu strains. So far no seasonal flu has been detected in Nunavut.

Sobol said H1N1 has become the dominant flu strain this season across Canada.