Nunavut/NWT - At work in his Pond Inlet office on a Monday morning last month, Colin Saunders felt his bones start to ache.

Medical lab technologist Jennifer Daley looks through a microscope at the Inuvik Regional Hospital. The hospital does not test for the H1N1 virus, even though there have been more than 500 confirmed cases of the flu so far in all regions of the NWT and Nunavut, with a second wave of the virus expected to hit this fall. - Katie May/NNSL photo H1N1 flu FACTS Symptoms: Fever Cough Runny nose Fatigue Muscle pain Loss of appetite If you feel sick, you should: Call your local health-care provider Stay home for at least a week until you feel better Cough or sneeze into a tissue or the crook of your arm instead of your hand Limit contact with others To protect yourself: Wash hands frequently with warm water and soap Sanitize common surfaces with antibacterial cleanser Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth Avoid close contact with sick people For more information: NWT Department of Health and Social Services: http://www.hlthss.gov.nt.ca (The NWT's pandemic plan is also available here) Nunavut Department of Health and Social Services: http://www.gov.nu.ca/health/ Influenza Information Line: 1-888-920-3026

The pain spread to his muscles and his body temperature spiked. He called in sick the next day. And the day after that. As his condition worsened and his family started to get sick too, he phoned the community's nursing station, which was so busy it was operating on an emergency-only basis.

"That's when they told me that there's a really bad flu going around," said Saunders, adding he was told to "just come in and pick up medication."

Records show more than 500 people across Nunavut and NWT have been infected with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, since the North's outbreak began in May, and one Nunavut resident has died of the illness.

Saunders, who was never diagnosed, is one of the unofficial cases. The economic development officer was back at work a week later after about four solid days of bed rest. Saunders said he'd known the swine flu outbreak had spread to the North, but he didn't think it would get to him and his family.

"We're up in Pond Inlet and we're relatively quite the distance from any central community like Iqaluit or Ottawa, so generally people don't worry about stuff like that a lot up here," he said. "My thinking on it was, 'yeah, it'll probably hit Yellowknife, Iqaluit and Ottawa and stuff,' but I didn't think it was going to come up to here."

As health officials in NWT and Nunavut prepare for an expected second wave of the swine flu virus to hit the North this fall, residents of both territories hope their governments release more information about the rising number of H1N1 outbreaks in their communities.

The NWT Department of Health and Social Services has ordered 80,000 H1N1 vaccines for November and December to stave off the threat of a more intense flu strain.

There are currently 510 lab-confirmed cases of the virus in Nunavut and 29 in NWT.

Dr. Richard Nuttall, the NWT's acting chief medical health officer, said he believes the flu has spread more slowly in NWT because of the department's public awareness campaign.

"We think that we have been successful in slowing the spread here in NWT because of our early and kind of extensive messaging," Nuttall said.

Another reason for the huge difference in confirmed cases between territories may lie in the way the health officials test for the virus.

The NWT has five testing stations set up in different communities to allow health professionals to monitor the spread of the flu and identify "clusters" where people are becoming infected at an unusually high rate. In addition to the sentinel stations, doctors take nasal swabs to test patients for swine flu when they are unsure of the diagnosis or when the patient needs to be hospitalized.

Only two of the 29 NWT residents confirmed to be suffering from swine flu have been hospitalized. Nuttall said if people report symptoms, doctors will most likely treat them for the flu right away instead of waiting several days for test results.

The NWT Department of Health is not specifying where the sentinel stations are located or, as in Nunavut, where the confirmed cases have occurred. All regions of both territories have been affected by the virus.

Dr. Geraldine Osborne, Nunavut's deputy chief medical officer of health, said when the outbreak began in early June the territory ordered that everyone who showed flu symptoms be tested so the government could track the virus.

Testing has since decreased, and now Nunavut health centres test only severe cases. Not many communities in Nunavut have remained flu-free, she said, but Nunavut has continued to identify its cases only by region - which has frustrated many of the territory's community leaders.

"Initially there was some concern that some communities might be unfairly stigmatized by this, but now it's widespread," Osborne said. "We certainly, absolutely agree that the communities themselves should know what's happening in their community."

She added that some health centres in the territory have misunderstood their ability to relay information to the affected communities.

Nunavut's territorial pandemic plan, last updated in 2006, is now being revised in preparation for the second wave of the virus, Osborne said, along with the community pandemic plans, which she said are normally updated every year. Each community has a pandemic plan available at its health centre.

"The flu itself, it has been pretty mild," said Osborne. "It's been highly contagious ... and a few people have had very severe illness, but in general, for the vast majority of people, it's been the same as the seasonal influenza."

Ron Mongeau, senior administrative officer in Pangnirtung, said his community is going ahead with its own pandemic preparedness plan.

"My experience to date is that I've received no correspondence from the Department of Health dealing with the department's H1N1 plans - not a word," Mongeau said.

"If we're not getting direction from the health professionals, our plans are always going to be lacking to some degree.

"Having said that, we've pulled together all the resources in the community and we've gone forward with our own pandemic planning," which should be ready at the end of the summer, he said.

Mongeau said the health centres in most communities have done a "marvellous" job educating the public about the virus, however, he is concerned about the health department's decision not to release information about swine flu cases.

"I think it's a mistake," Mongeau said. "The more information we can get into people's hands, the better off we'll be."

Rankin Inlet's senior administrative officer Paul Waye said he, too, was at first disappointed by the health department's refusal to release information about swine flu cases.

"People panicked," he said, "because they didn't know what was going on.

"It's much better now," Waye continued. "The communities are working with the Department of Health and Social Services. We're talking about where we are with the epidemic ... and what potentially could happen in the future."