County still has shots

Nurse Rose Hepburn injects Alexis Hunte, 9, with the H1N1 vaccine Monday at the Department of Heath and Social Services. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Even though some local physicians have temporarily run out of the first series of  vaccinations, the Del Norte County Health Department is still receiving shipments.

“We’re getting small, sporadic amounts,” said Del Norte County Emergency Services Manager Cindy Henderson. “We are pushing them out to physicians with high-risk patients that are running low.”

Unlike seasonal flu vaccinations, which even pharmacies can order and distribute, the first swine flu vaccinations were delivered only to medical clinics and the county health department. The county then distributes most of its allotment to physicians.

Currently vaccines are only being given to people in high-risk categories.

That includes caregivers for babies 6 months and younger, pregnant women and health-care providers.

Supplies of the vaccine are stored in a refrigerator at the Health Department. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

“We received 600 more vaccines Monday,” Henderson said. “We will be making sure that they get to the community members at the highest risk.”

Henderson said that when large numbers of vaccinations start coming in, she plans on holding vaccination clinics at Del Norte County schools much the same way the Health Department and Del Norte Office of Emergency Services did for the seasonal flu.

The seasonal flu clinics provided free vaccinations for students and their families, and were primarily run by volunteers.

“We opened the hotline yesterday,” Henderson said Tuesday. “It’s all about the vaccine and what to look for. There is a nurse that will answer any flu related question.”

 The hotline number is 465-0319 and it will be staffed with a nurse from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“We want people not to panic,” Henderson said. “The H1N1 virus is not a death sentence. Most people get sick for five or so days and then return to work just fine.”

Pregnant women are one of the highest risk categories, which poses a problem because the version of the vaccine intended for pregnant women isn’t going to be available until Dec. 1, Henderson said.

The vaccines currently available contain a small amount of preservative, which some people fear causes autism.

According to Henderson and health care professionals, however, there is not a single scientific study that actually documents the link between vaccinations and autism.

But because of public worry over the possibility, the Centers for Disease Control started requiring vaccinations for pregnant women and children under 3 to be preservative-free in 2004.

That has changed for the swine flu season.

“The Center for Disease Control has released a waiver to all OBGYN’s because they think that the risk of the vaccine is far less than the risk of swine flu,” Henderson said in a previous interview.

Most doctors in town have been giving the currently available vaccine to their pregnant patients if requested, she said Tuesday.