Yellowknife (Apr 28/06) - It's coming. Medical officials don't know when the next flu pandemic will hit, but there is little doubt in the medical community that it will.

"No one is immune," said chief public health officer for the Public Health Agency of Canada, Dr. David Butler Jones.

Pandemic flu deaths Spanish flu Year: 1918/19 Deaths: 40-50 million Asian flu Year: 1957 Deaths: 1 million Hong Kong flu Year: 1968 Deaths: 1 million

And so, the NWT has developed a plan of action in case a pandemic flu hits the NWT.

Jones and chief medical officer of the NWT Dr. Andre Corriveau presented the NWT's plan in case of an outbreak of a new influenza strain last Friday.

Jones said as many as 58,000 Canadians could die from secondary infections like pneumonia caused by the flu virus.

The potential cost of fighting a serious flu pandemic is between $330 million and $1.4 billion, say the two doctors.

But the NWT and Canada are ready for the flu, said Corriveau, citing the creation of a report called the Pandemic Influenza Contingency.

The report outlines the steps the medical community would follow during an outbreak of a flu epidemic in the North, including the stockpiling of anti-viral medication.

"We have 23,000 doses of Tamiflu, and we plan to triple that to 70,000 doses over the next 18 months," said Corriveau.

Tamiflu is prescribed during the early stages of the flu to lessen the severity, or as a preventative measure.

Two doses (two pills) over a period of five days is the usual treatment.

More than 20,000 doses of the flu vaccine were made available to NWT residents this year, though Corriveau did not know how many people were actually vaccinated.

He has been making presentations to medical professionals across the North, explaining what will happen if a widespread flu hits the NWT.

"We have rooms set up for isolation at the Inuvik, Yellowknife and Hay River hospitals," said Corriveau.

The main concerns for the NWT medical professionals is keeping the lines of communication open in the wake of high turnover rates, and having a separate area to assess flu sufferers at medical facilities, said Corriveau.

The presentation detailed other flu pandemics where millions of people were killed.

But this country is much better prepared since Canadians are generally healthy and more medical facilities and technologies are available here, said Corriveau.

This is not the case in many developing countries, said Jones, which is where the next pandemic may start.

Ways to prevent getting the flu include washing hands, staying home when sick, and getting a flu shot every year, said Jones.