Swine flu vaccines hit home

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October 14, 2009

By CARRIE STAMBAUGH — The Independent The Daily Independent Wed Oct 14, 2009, 10:07 PM EDT

Ashland — Health officials began administering the first 200 doses of swine flu vaccine to Boyd County first responders on Wednesday.

FIVCO Regional Epidemiologist Kristy Bolen said the first doses of vaccine to arrive are the intranasal version of the H1N1 vaccine. They are being doled out to emergency medical service workers, firefighters and police officers because of their vulnerability to being exposed to sick patients.

Boyd County EMS Director Tom Adams said he will be administering the doses to his workers and those in the county’s three law enforcement agencies and nine fire departments during the next two weeks.

“These are folks who provide an essential service and are also at a greater risk than the average person,” Adams said.

“They also go into homes where people are sick and respond to those folks. The odds of us being exposed to H1N1 is very high. With that there are two things we need to take into consideration. If my staff becomes sick to the point where my ability to provide service is compromised then we’ve got a problem taking care of the public. Then, two, if my folks get it and we give it to someone unknowingly we’ve also got a problem,” Adams said.

The inoculation campaign for first responders will continue with additional shipments of injectable vaccine, according to Bolen and Adams.

The intranasal vaccines are only appropriate for ages 2 to 49 who do not have underlying health conditions.

According to Bolen, additional doses of vaccine are expected to begin arriving at the health department weekly for distribution to health care providers and other agencies.

Vaccine orders are placed by individual health departments to the state Department of Public Health who then requests vaccines for the entire state from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bolen said. Orders typically ship within five to 10 business days of being placed.

The availability of vaccines is expected to increase with each passing week, Bolen said.

“What they are telling us is it’s progressive, that the allotments will get more and more substantial so we’ll eventually have enough to do a large majority of the population,” she said.

In a typical year, only about 5 percent of the population is inoculated against seasonal flu. This year, Bolen said, “It’s been triple that.”

The number of individuals seeking swine flu vaccines is also expected to be near 15 percent of the population, and Bolen said health officials are confident they will eventually be able to distribute vaccines to everyone who wants one.

Following health care workers and first responders, initial vaccines are expected to be given to children and pregnant women.

Bolen said about 300 doses of pediatric vaccines also arrived this week and were distributed to a number of pediatricians. Parents interested in having their children inoculated against H1N1 should call their doctors to find out if they will be offering the vaccines.

The Ashland-Boyd County Health Department along with other local health departments will eventually offer the vaccines as well.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.

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