Health department gets flu vaccine

The Athens City-County Health Department has received a shipment of more than 2,000 of H1N1 flu vaccine in various types, and is already busy distributing it to high-risk groups throughout the county.

Director Charles Hammer said that the department is holding vaccination clinics at area schools and is planning on holding two clinics next week for high-risk members of the community.

He said that information will be available on the clinics at the department's Web site as soon as they get everything figured out.

Next week, the department will hold two clinics at its facilities, the first for 6 to 18 year-olds with chronic conditions, as well as for household caregivers for children under 6 months old, and for healthy children from 6 months old to 5 years old. This will be repeated in the second clinic. At the same time, Hammer said, the department will be heading out into the school districts to administer the vaccinations.

Hammer said that as shipments come in, the department will accelerate its schedule for administration of the vaccine. He plans on scheduling vaccinations in such a way so as to avoid lines of people or any kind of situation where people wait for a dose and then are told that the vaccines have run out.

"That's not going to happen here, the way we're doing these clinics," he promised.

The department has expanded its staff by hiring additional nurses to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible, he added.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) submitted an order for 389,500 doses of H1N1 flu vaccine to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last Friday afternoon. The vaccine was shipped directly to 298 local health departments and hospitals in 88 Ohio counties.

The order includes 60,800 doses of nasal-spray vaccine and 328,700 shots of H1N1 flu vaccine, according to a news release.

The vaccine is intended for high-risk individuals including health-care workers and EMS workers who provide direct patient care; pregnant women; people who live with or care for children less than 6 months; all people 6 months to 24 years; and people 25 to 64 years with chronic medical conditions.

ODH has previously ordered 595,200 doses of H1N1 vaccine, bringing Ohio's total to 984,700 doses thus far, according to the release.

This represents Ohio's total allotment of H1N1 influenza vaccine. More vaccine is expected to be available in the coming weeks.

For more information visit http://www.flu.ohio.gov or call the DH H1N1 information line at 1-866-800-1404 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.