The first batches of the new H1N1 influenza vaccine are being distributed in the St. Louis area.
The first 1,800 doses to arrive in the city are in nasal spray form and are going first to those on the priority list ? starting with health care workers who will take care of the sick. The city will provide vaccine for medical care workers, fire, police and critical infrastructure staff.
“The first shipments from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be small,” said Pamela Rice Walker, the City’s health director.
“These shipments will be targeted to those most at risk for serious illness, hospitalization and even death, including pregnant women and children.”
Walker expects H1N1 shot vaccines shortly and anticipates 70,000 doses in St. Louis by the end of November.
As the shipments increase in the coming weeks, health departments are partnering with community health centers, pediatricians, hospitals, schools and employers to make the vaccine available to anyone who wants it as soon as possible.
Although this is the first full week of the regular annual flu season, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, “Already, we’ve had more flu activity this year than we had in the peak of the previous seasons.” She added, “90 percent is H1N1.”
Sebelius and U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay were in St. Louis on Tuesday and toured the Doisy Research Facility at Saint Louis University, a test site for the H1N1 vaccine.
“Thirty-five-thousand doses of flu mist have been set aside for Missouri,” Clay said. “Every county in the state of Missouri, no matter how small, will receive at least 100 doses this week, with more to follow.”
The vaccines are free, as the government has already paid for 250 million doses of the vaccine and its shipping. Private providers may charge an administration fee.
Other priority populations are pregnant women, and persons 6 months to 24 years, 25 to 64 with chronic health conditions and persons living or caring for babies less than 6 months of age.
“Keeping not only those you love safe and secure is important, but I think also helping them not be carriers of what could be a very deadly virus to others who may have a much more severe reaction” is important, Sebelius said.
By getting the H1N1 vaccine, she said pregnant women are doing double duty.
“They are keeping themselves safe for the remainder of their pregnancy, but they are also protecting their newborn,” Sebelius said.
“Once the baby is born, the only way to protect the new baby is for the parents and caregivers to be vaccinated.”
H1N1 and minorities
Although others may wait a bit before getting their H1N1 shots, Sebelius said there will be enough vaccine for everyone.
Although African-American and minority communities are no more or less at risk for contracting the H1N1.
“Communities of color have higher rates of chronic illness, like asthma and diabetes,” Sebelius said yesterday on a conference call with minority media.
The nasal spray form of the vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women, children under 2 years old or anyone with underlying health conditions, such as asthma, because it is made from live virus. The shots have dead virus in them. Vaccines are not recommended for persons with egg allergies.
The H1N1 pandemic is causing unprecedented numbers of flu cases in the U.S. “Already we’ve had more flu activity this year than we had in the peak of the previous seasons” Sebelius told the minority media yesterday.
St. Louis County reported 495 cases of influenza-A last month, presumably H1N1.
“In reality, the flu never went away over the summer as it normally does,” said Dr. Delores Gunn, director of the St. Louis County Health Department.
“What we know at this point is that the flu is definitely here and in numbers much higher than we normally see this early in the season.”
To ally apprehension about getting the vaccine, health experts are stressing that although there was expedited development, the H1N1 flu vaccine is safe.
“This vaccine is being made the same way seasonal flu vaccine is made year in and year out,” Sebelius said. “That gives us great confidence that this vaccine is very safe. No safety steps have been skipped along the way.”
Area hospitals will use tents like the ones now being used at St. Louis Children’s Hospital as an overflow to lessen emergencies as ER rooms fill beyond capacity with patients with flu-like illness.
“They will be triaged in the emergency department, then the less severely ill will be escorted over to the tents,” said Dr. Alexis Elward, St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Most health officials are urging everyone to take the H1N1 flu pandemic seriously.
“Our best protection really comes from the vaccine,” said Dr. Ann Schuchat, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
She said reports of H1N1 are widespread in 27 states and regional in another 20 states with all reporting some type of H1N1 flu activity.
In about one-third of the H1N1 fatalities reported in the U.S., the CDC said bacterial co-infections, such as streptococcus pneumonia or pneumococcus, likely contributed to the deaths. In addition to the seasonal flu shot and the H1N1 vaccine, the CDC is recommending that people also get the pneumonia vaccine to protect against the potentially deadly co-infection.
For the latest information on H1N1 flu in the U.S., including a self-evaluation tool, got to www.flu.gov.
