SANIKILUAQ - The government is now releasing details about an illness that hit the Belcher Islands community hard earlier this winter and why the health centre had to close for a couple of days over the Christmas holidays.

Sanikiluaq got hit hard by the flu earlier this winter with 52 medevacs flying out of the community during a period in December. The flu centre suffered a blow as they had to shut down for a couple of days due to a fuel leak. This photo of the health centre in Sanikiluaq was taken in February 2008. - photo courtesy of Department of Community and Government Services

"Nobody told me anything at the time," said Muhamud Hassan, Sanikiliuaq's senior administrative officer, as to the reason why so many people were getting sick and with what ailments.

Minister of Health Tagak Curley said the situation has now "settled" but there was a spike in influenza (flu) or flu-like illnesses in December and January.

"There was a dramatic increase in some of the influenza-like symptoms in December. Fifty-two medevacs of patients were sent out to Winnipeg for treatment," he said in the legislative assembly on March 4. Nunavut chief medical officer Dr. Isaac Sobol said respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a lower respiratory tract infection that affects children and infants, was also present.

Hudson Bay MLA Allan Rumbolt has spent the last two weeks in the session pressing the government for answers on the outbreak.

He is still waiting to find out if a number of the health centre's medical supplies used up during this outbreak have been replaced.

Hassan said he has yet to receive an official briefing from the Department of Health and Social Services as to what exactly happened and that he has been getting his information from the discussion at the legislative assembly.

Fuel leak

In December, during the outbreak, Sanikiluaq's health centre was closed down for several days due to a broken fuel line in the mechanical room. During this time health services were delivered from another location in the community.

Minister of Community and Government Services Lorne Kusugak said the floors of the 27-year-old building were soaked with fuel as was the insulation and vapour barriers.

"While the health centre was closed we removed the furnace, a portion of the floor, they excavated the contaminated soil that they could actually get to and remove that soil for disposal and then put everything back together," said Larry Gordon, advisor, property and asset management with CGS.

Gordon said this took three to four days and cost about $10,000.

Problems were also reported with a furnace and the building has cracked sewage tanks.

Gordon said the plan now is to send a team in to look at what has to be done in the interim. He said they will also look at the age of the furnace and try and figure out how much fuel was spilled. A process called bio-remediation will be used to clean up the remaining amounts of oil.

The 803 square metre building houses the nurse's residence on the upper floor with treatment rooms and offices on the main floor.

Hassan said to his knowledge there have not been any mechanical or structural problems at the health centre before.

"I think for its age and size it has performed extremely well," he said, adding the community is looking forward to having the building replaced.

According to CGS's capital plan, a replacement for the health centre is high on the priority list and is slated for completion in 2018.

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