"As soon as we saw a pattern that showed severe disease was more common in people of aboriginal descent, then that became an additional risk factor and we communicated that to health officers very soon after that," Dr. Joel Kettner, the Manitoba's chief medical officer of health, said.

"Following lessons learned in Manitoba... the Province of Ontario adapted their provincial guidelines to increase the antiviral allocation to northern communities," a Health Canada spokeswoman stated in an email to the Free Press.

He said residents in the Island Lake communities don't understand why they appear to have received inferior care compared with the Sandy Lake residents, adding provincial and federal health officials need to be more open with First Nations. "All Ottawa would tell us was that everything that could be done had been done and that we should trust them," [David McDougall] said. "We have to work together."