When ordinary days become extraordinary: the response to H1N1 at the Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre

In April 2009, the H1N1 swine flu virus entered Canada with a sentinel case presenting in a private school in Windsor, Nova Scotia, signaling the beginning of wave 1 of a pandemic. By June, the World Health Organization raised the alert level to 6. Wave 2 was expected in 4 to 6 months. Between waves, the IWK took the opportunity to revise pandemic plans that had been prepared for the H5N1 avian influenza virus to ensure that the organization would be prepared for the emergency response that would be required to manage large numbers of ill people seeking healthcare services for the pending second wave of the swine flu.