NORWICH – The Chenango County Public Health Department will hold two, by appointment only H1N1 flu vaccine clinics in November for children ages 2-18. No walk-ins will be accepted.
The clinics are scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m., Friday, Nov. 6 and from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19 on the basement floor of the Chenango County Office Building on Court Street.
Only the intranasal, live vaccine will be available. Those children who should not receive live intranasal vaccine include:
• Children under 2 years of age;
• Anyone with a weakened immune system;
• Anyone with a long-term health problem such as heart, kidney, liver, and lung diseases and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, anemia and other blood disorders;
• Children younger than 5 years with asthma or one or more episodes of wheezing during the past year;
• Anyone with certain muscle or nerve disorders (such as cerebral palsy) that can lead to breathing or swallowing problems;
• Anyone in close contact with a person with a severely weakened immune system (requiring care in a protected environment, such as a bone marrow transplant unit);
• Children or adolescents on long-term aspirin treatment.
Children who are moderately or severely ill are advised to wait until they recover before getting the vaccine. Other clinic dates will be scheduled and announced in area newspapers and on television.
Public Health Director Dr. Marcas Flindt said the county has received 400 doses of the swine flu vaccine and ordered 2,000 more doses on Monday. Future clinics will be scheduled with area school districts as soon as enough doses arrive.
“We will begin a hard effort in the schools soon,” the director told members of the Chenango County Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday.
So far, only one case of H1N1 has been confirmed in Chenango County, but Flindt said there are “thousands of probable cases” here. Of the approximately 52,000 people in the county, the public health department anticipates inoculating or distributing enough vaccine to protect about half of the population.
“This is huge. We’ve never done anything like this before,” said Flindt.
Already the Chenango County Public Health Department has requested a transfer of funds from Homeland Security revenues in order to raise the part-time county medical director’s salary. Dr. Scott Cohen’s hours have increased due to his involvement with H1N1 calls from the public and clinic preparations.
Flindt said the vaccine’s manufacturers would incorporate the H1N1 strain into the season flu shot next year, so illness from swine flu is expected to be much less next fall and winter.
The county has already exhausted its supply of the seasonal flu vaccine. Supplies are low because the same companies that were producing the seasonal flu shots have switched to producing the H1N1.
A press release from the county’s public health department states that staff is doing “everything possible to plan appropriately and begin to roll out clinics as the vaccine is delivered.”
“There have been many issues with the distribution of this vaccine which are out of the control of staff at the local level,” the release said. “(We want) to assure everyone that there will be enough vaccine eventually. As vaccine comes in, it will be used to immunize target groups in a methodical manner.”
Flindt said 12 is the mean age of deaths from swine flu, and it was hard for the public to realize that seniors aren’t the group targeted to be inoculated first.
“It’s just the opposite as with the seasonal flu,” he said.
For more information, call the Health Department at 337-1660.