The Canadian military is backtracking on reports it will offer the H1N1 vaccine to Afghan detainees, saying there are no plans to vaccinate those being held.
The reports of the vaccination policy touched off a controversy back home Tuesday, with federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq denouncing the plan as "outrageous."
In remarks to reporters, she noted that Canada is still struggling with its own vaccine shortages and insisted that if vaccine were being given to Afghan detainees, it was not sanctioned by her ministry.
"Personally, I'm very disturbed by the news, and I can say that we did not make this outrageous decision. I have asked my officials to look into that," Aglukkaq said.
The Department of National Defence later announced there was no plan to vaccinate Afghan detainees in Canadian custody.
"The Canadian Forces are providing appropriate medical care to those in their custody," Maj. Jason Proulx read from a statement late Tuesday.
"Offering vaccinations to detainees for H1N1 would be based on medical need and at this point there is no plan to vaccinate detainees. No vaccine has been provided to any detainee."
Proulx did not answer further questions from reporters.
CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer says there has been some confusion over whether the Geneva Convention holds in the case of Afghan detainees, and whether Canadian forces are responsible for the welfare of those in their custody.
"Canada has long held to Geneva conventions when it comes to medical care," Mackey Frayer told Canada AM Wednesday from Kabul. "Those laws stipulate that detainees need to receive the same care as Canadian soldiers themselves."
But Afghans in Canadian custody are not considered prisoners of war and have no legal status as such, because Canada considers the mission in Afghanistan a counter-insurgency operation, not an international armed conflict.
Canadian military officials in Kandahar say the military had large quantities of H1N1 vaccine, which it received several weeks ago. Already, more than 2,000 soldiers have been given the shot, along with civilian Forces staff and staff at the Canadian embassy in Kabul.
The vaccination program will now likely expand to Afghans working for the Canadian military and embassy, including cooks, security guards and interpreters.
Afghanistan itself has no vaccine. It has asked its international donors to help but the Canadian government has said it has none to spare.
The World Health Organization has a global vaccine donation program, and has promised to provide Afghanistan with 500,000 of the first 11 million doses it receives. But because of global production delays and huge demand, the WHO has not received any doses yet.
More than 800 people in Afghanistan now have confirmed cases of swine flu and 11 people have died since Oct. 28.
Worried that the flu could spread throughout the country, the government decided earlier this month to close schools and universities for three weeks under a state of emergency.
Public gatherings are now banned and people everywhere are wearing masks to ward off a disease that few Afghans even paid any attention to a few weeks ago.
