UPDATED: Whitley Health Dept. decides on location for Swine Flu vaccination clinic, changes times
Clinic to be held at Whitley County Middle School from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Mark White and Trent Knuckles | Filed under News | Add a Comment? |
Whitley County Health Department officials announced Thursday they have changed the time for a free H1N1 vaccination clinic next week. The clinic will be held in the Whitley County Middle School cafeteria.
Tamara Johnson, Public Health Nursing Supervisor, said that the clinic, originally planned for 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Nov. 3 has been changed to 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. The vaccine will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
"We are going to make it available to the general public," Johnson said. "We are still going to try to vaccinate those in priority groups first. We ask the people who are 25 to 64 with no health problems to wait."
Johnson said the health department will have both forms of the vaccine - a nasal spray form and injection.
The nasal vaccine, which is a live form of the virus, is for healthy people, who are ages two through 49. The injections can't be given to anyone under the age of six months, Johnson said.
There will be no charge for the vaccinations, which will be given on a first come, first served basis.
Johnson asked that people continue being patient waiting for the vaccine.
"We're doing the best we can with what we get in," she added.
So far, the health department has received about 1,500 doses of the vaccine. It is slated to get another 800 doses in time for the clinic next week. Johnson said that while officials ostensibly weren't offering vaccines to the general public in advance of the clinic, that many people came to the health department and were vaccinated anyway.
"If they came in and asked for it, we would ask them to wait if they weren't in the priority groups," she said. "If they were insistent, we would give it to them. There has been a lot of people wanting it."
The Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) announced last week that 10 people had died in Kentucky so far from the H1N1 virus.
The two most recent deaths include a woman in her 80s from Knox County with significant underlying health issues, who died in September, and a man in his 40s from the Kentucky State Reformatory in Oldham County, who was being treated off-site.
"It is always a tragedy when we lose any Kentuckian to illness," said Department for Public Health Commissioner William Hacker, M.D. "We know that seven of the 10 individuals we have lost in Kentucky are in target groups for the H1N1 vaccine.
"People in these groups are at a higher risk for complications from the swine flu and should get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it is available in their community. While we don't yet have as much of the swine flu vaccine on hand as we would like, we know more will arrive in the coming weeks."
Kentucky has been allocated 177,400 doses of the swine flu vaccine so far, with more than 138,000 doses of that having shipped to health departments and health care providers in the state.
"Kentucky continues to experience widespread flu activity at the moment. I'd like to remind everyone that your mother's advice - washing your hands, covering your cough and staying home when sick - is very effective at preventing the spread of flu," Hacker said.
"The flu vaccine is also one of the most effective tools we have against influenza, and while there are a few clinics already taking place in the state, we hope to begin immunizing more Kentuckians in the weeks ahead."
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