Initial doses of H1N1 vaccine arrive in Saline County (UPDATED 10:04 a.m. Oct. 14)

"Today we have placed H1N1 vaccine in the community," Saline County Health Department assistant administrator Russ Donnell announced during the Saline County Health Board meeting held Tuesday evening.

The initial 300 doses, 200 of the mist and 100 of the injected version of the H1N1 vaccine, were distributed to I-70 Community Hospital's outpatient clinic in Sweet Springs, Fitzgibbon Hospital for Marshall Family Practice, Missouri Valley Physicians and Mid-Missouri Family Health.

Donnell said the decision to place the initial doses at the area facilities was made on Thursday Oct. 8, at a meeting with community partners.

"We determined at our meeting that we would use it as much as we could for children," Donnell said of the initial shipments. "Because of the limited use -- not being able to use it (the mist version of the vaccine) in children with any kind of chronic medical conditions, the health care providers know the patients better. So they are the ones more likely able to determine in which patients it can be used."

"We will do the shot clinics through the health department as the supplies increase," said Donnell, adding that the department is supposed to be getting a weekly shipment as the vaccine becomes more available. There are only five companies manufacturing the vaccines, and they are working "overtime" he said. Eventually, the county could receive as many as 10,000 doses.

For now the limited supplies will be used for the first five priority groups: pregnant women; people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age; health care and emergency medical services personnel with direct patient contact; children 6 months through 4 years of age; and children 5 through 18 years of age with chronic medical conditions.

The health department has yet to receive the preservative-free version of the vaccine recommended for pregnant women and children ages 6 months to 3 years old.

"We're anxious to get the vaccine that is preservative- free," said Donnell.

Although there have been just two "officially" confirmed cases of H1N1 in Saline County, Donnell said the flu is "in the community."

"The problem that we've run into in numbers is that to confirm H1N1 it costs $600 to $900 and the insurance companies aren't paying for it," he said, adding that it takes two days to complete the test, so many patients are recovering by the time the official diagnosis is made.

Area clinics are conducting rapid tests for type A influenza, and a positive result on that tests means it's "96 percent likely" to be H1N1, explained Donnell.

"It is probably fairly widespread in the community. A lot of them aren't going to the doctor because it is relatively mild to moderate," he said.

He said that most cases in Saline County have not been severe.

"The H1N1 virus that is circulating now for approximately 99 percent of the people is relatively mild to moderate," reported Donnell.

"Those that it is hitting are younger than 15, the 5- to 15-year-olds are probably 60 percent of the cases," he said.

Nationwide "the people who get into trouble" or have the most severe cases are highly disproportionately young people," according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Generally, about 70 percent of those cases have occurred in children who have an underlying condition.

Administrator Lisa Thomas said that the nationwide trend of older adults who apparently have an immunity to the current H1N1 flu, "seems to be holding true" in Saline County.

"We haven't had any confirmed case of people 65 or over," said Thomas.

Also during the health board meeting, Donnell announced the department has received a $32,983 federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Public Health Emergency Response Grant is to help the county health department with the costs of the H1N1 response.

Phase 1 of the grant is for planning and was for $29,344. Phase 2 is for epidemiological investigations and is for $3,639.

"Hopefully in the very near future we'll be getting Phase 3 which is for actual administration of H1N1," Donnell said, although he doesn't know how much the grant will total.

It was also reported during the meeting that the health department has already distributed all of its seasonal flu vaccine supply and will not be getting more, as the companies are now concentrating on manufacturing the H1N1 vaccine.

"The demand for it far exceeded the expectations," said Donnell, noting officials had to order the seasonal flu vaccinations in February, long before the first cases of H1N1 were reported.

Last year, the department had 400 doses of seasonal flu vaccination unused, said Thomas.

Related stories:
www.marshallnews.com/topic/flu_news09

On the Net:
http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
http://www.dhss.mo.gov/BT_Response/_H1N1...