from the BCCT:
By: JO CIAVAGLIA
Bucks County Courier Times
Within the next two weeks, Bucks' health departments and local school districts anticipate distributing H1N1 vaccine permission forms and information packages to parents.
The Bucks County Health Department anticipates it may start its first H1N1 vaccine clinics for school-age children later this month.
While the Philadelphia region, including Bucks and Montgomery counties, will be among the first in the state to receive an early shipment of the new vaccine, county health officials will wait until they have adequate supplies before starting to vaccinate children, Director Dr. David Damsker said last week.
"We don't want to give out vaccines for two days and then say, 'Oh, we're out,'" he said. "We want to make sure we have enough vaccine that we don't have to stop once we start."
Bucks County's health department has ordered more than 100,000 doses of the new swine flu vaccine on behalf of local school districts and it will help schools administer the free inoculations.
Within the next two weeks, parents should start receiving vaccine permission forms and information packages, Damsker said. The county also will ask school districts how they want the vaccine distributed - in a single mass clinic, multiple sites and days, during school hours or after school.
Most Bucks County school district officials say they're awaiting further guidance from the county before they start notifying parents and finalize clinic schedules.
Bristol Township School District, though, has distributed permission slips along with a screening questionnaire, which will help school nurses determine if a child should receive the flu nasal spray or vaccine. The slip is available on the district's Web site.
The district plans to administer the H1N1 FluMist the week of Nov. 23, but it will administer free seasonal flu nasal spray vaccines the week of Oct. 19.
In Montgomery County, school districts ordered H1N1 vaccine on their own for immunizing students. The county has ordered 15,000 doses to supplement local supplies. School districts will formulate plans for administering the vaccine, though the health department will provide assistance, if requested.
The first 600,000 doses of the H1N1 nasal spray FluMist will be divided among 21 states, including Pennsylvania, and four large cities by Tuesday, with more small shipments to more states later in the week.
Advertisement The first shipment of nasal spray vaccine is Thimerosal-free; some believe the vaccine preservative is linked with disorders such as autism. The injected version of the vaccine will be available with and without Thimerosal.
More than 5,000 health care providers in Pennsylvania, so far, have pre-registered to distribute the vaccine, according to state health officials. State health officials plan to post online listings where people can get the H1N1 vaccine once adequate supplies are shipped.
Pennsylvania will target its initial 58,000 FluMist doses mostly to 5- to 9-year-olds in parts of the state where H1N1 is most active including the Philadelphia region. Children under 10 also require two doses of the H1N1 vaccine to receive its full protection.
More than 70 percent of the new swine flu cases in the state since Sept. 1 have been among people ages 5 to 24 with the highest numbers among school-age children. Statewide, more than 2,600 confirmed cases of the new swine flu have been reported including 144 in Bucks and 234 in Montgomery counties as of Friday.
The more common flu shot will be close behind the FluMist shipments, part of the 6 million to 7 million doses of injected vaccine the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to ship around the country by the end of next week.
About 40 million doses will start shipping the second week of October. That's when states expect enough of both shots and FluMist to start heavily targeting the high-risk groups: pregnant women, children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years, the young and middle-age who have flu-risky conditions like asthma or diabetes, and caregivers of infants.
By January, Pennsylvania anticipates receiving 7 million doses of H1N1 vaccine, which state health officials anticipate will be more than enough to vaccinate residents who want it.
Did you know?
A Consumer Reports poll last week found that 35 percent of parents said they'd definitely have their children vaccinated against swine flu.
