As a whooping cough outbreak continues to grow in New Brunswick, pharmacists are offering to help with a vaccination program. There have been 28 new cases in the past week alone, which brings the total number of cases so far this year to 1091.

Public health officials are urging people to check and see if they need booster shots for the bacterial disease and local pharmacists are offering to administer them.

“We’re open weekends, we’re open nights, we’re open holidays, we’re very accessible,” says pharmacist Alastair Bursey.

That accessibility is behind a pitch that pharmacies be allowed to administer adult booster shots against whooping cough – something they’re not allowed to do right now. More than 200 drugstore staff members across the province are already trained to give flu shots inside pharmacies.

“Pharmacists can give vaccinations for people greater than five years and in this case, I think it’s a simple solution of increasing access,” says Bursey.

The province is encouraging adults to keep up-to-date on their adult whooping cough boosters. However, when it comes to pharmacies offering their stores as vaccine clinics, the answer has been ‘thanks, but no thanks.’

“I’m sure it has to do with the fact they’d expect more people to become immunized if pharmacists were providing the service, and we agree with that, and with that there are budgetary concerns,” says Paul Blanchard of the New Brunswick Pharmacists Association. “We believe we’re in a special case with 50 per cent of national cases happening in New Brunswick and we want to offer our services so this doesn’t get out of hand.”

“High risk demographics are already being targeted for vaccination through school clinics this fall and while adults are still being urged to get their booster, the department believes programs in place right now are sufficient,” says Health Minister Madeline Dube.

The province says they are not dismissing the idea completely, but at this time, adult booster shots are available only through family doctors and public health.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore