ShareH1N1 Facts
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The Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada (ANAC) identifies the groups at risk in First Nations: Aboriginal youth, pregnant women, and those with pre-existing health conditions. Vital to the behavior of H1N1, ANAC discusses the high rates of poverty, unemployment, and inadequate housing as undisputed factors in the spread of this virus in remote First Nations. In addition, the ANAC reminds us that over 100 First Nation communities across Canada do not have clean running water. Of the Aboriginal people living in Ontario’s Far North, 70 per cent are under the age of 30, and close to 50 per cent of these are between the ages of 0 – 19, making many vulnerable to this virus. Community leaders have found that an additional 7,500 homes would be needed to alleviate overcrowding and bring conditions up to United Nations standards. Mennonite Central Committee Ontario (MCCO) has been asked to partner with First Nations and Aboriginal organizations in a response that will help limit, through prevention, the highly-contractible H1N1 virus. Our walk will be with more than 45,000 community members who live in the 50 remote and isolated Cree, Oji-Cree and Ojibway First Nations. In both a call for help and an offer of thanks, Mushkegowuk Grand Chief, Stan Louttit, had this to say: “With the threat of the H1N1 pandemic hitting our northern communities, we find ourselves in a very vulnerable position due to the condition of the houses, overcrowding and in some cases the lack of potable drinking water. While we do our best with the limited resources that we have, we appreciate the efforts of an organization such as the Mennonite Central Committee who have offered to assist us in our time of need.” |
The World Health Organization has named Indigenous People among the top three groups most likely to contract the H1N1 virus. 
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