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The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday September 6, 2003 - 5 / V e n v West Nile blood test results finally completed Region unsure w h a t provincial health officials w ill d o w ith results BY JASON MISNER SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Long-awaited West Nile virus (WNV) test results are finally in the hands of provincial health officials nearly four months following the comple tion of a rare blood study in south Oakville. Kelly Keith, spokesperson for Health Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory of the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH) said in an interview Thursday that the blood results were sent off to O ntario's Ministry of Health last week. She said she couldn't com ment on what the re-tests showed. The health ministry, which is funding the $250,000 study and is responsible for releasing the information, couldn't be reached for comment by press time. Vial-sized blood samples were drawn from 1,505 resi dents from south Oakville in April and May to determine if they contracted the mosquitoborne virus. The data is to be extrapolated to the general pop ulation. A high number of samples from the blood study were re tested at CSCHAH in Winnipeg after it was found that the results might have been skewed by other West Nile-like diseases, such as St. Louis encephalitis. But what has Halton health officials and politicians con fused is that it was never the health ministry's intent to use the blood test results as some form of West Nile awareness campaign this year. Paul Cantin, press secretary to Health M inister Tony Clement, told the Beaver recent ly that "the purpose of (the study) is more to try and help build up the overall body of sci entific information available to researchers. "1 think it would be difficult to say that whatever conclusion that comes out this study would've changed the way pub lic health decisions were made this year." The Beaver accessed the Ontario government's Web site and found that three news releases were issued this year about the blood study. A May 2 release quoted Dr. Colin D 'Cunha, O ntario's Medical Officer of Health as saying the information from the blood study "will enhance our public education messages and the clinical advice that physi cians give their patients." In the same release, Clement was quoted as saying, "it will allow municipalities to develop improved ways of eradicating mosquitoes in their areas." However, none of the three releases gave a specific date when or exactly how the results would be used for public con sumption. That May 2 release also stat ed the tests were to be complet ed by mid-June. Later a health ministry spokesperson said they would be ready by the end of July because of the re-tests and then was changed to mid-August, again because of the time need ed to complete the re-tests. Regardless, the study's (See 'Oakville' page 9) f a l l S a v i n j i z S e p t e m b e r Save 40° ° I M P E R I A L * Wall Coverings Book Orders. Not including special order books. September 10-21 C IU ELE * IN T L R IO K Hum lO O\. 4cr' 1 5 ° ° o «f While Quantities Last / ^i»s/lW/ `4 litres only. Deeper colours extra. Voted Oakville's Best Paint Store 5 Years in a Row! Jm vj Painters P lace 2 L jc a rc n s to serve you! ·J'S D u n e a s St. W e st 5636 G len Erin Or. 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