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Nov 16, 2009 6:35 pm US/Central
Demand For H1N1 Vaccine Eases With Public Clinics
(WCCO)
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Public H1N1 flu clinics are beginning to surface in Minnesota. (File)
Justin Sullivan /Getty Images
A few public H1N1 flu clinics are starting to surface in Minnesota as vaccine supplies begin to ease a bit.
Hundreds of local kids were vaccinated for the H1N1 virus last weekend with the additional 85,000 doses that were allocated to the state, bringing the total number of doses to 785,000.
Still, that's only about a third of what the state requested to immunize broader priority groups. So far, the vaccine is only going to the highest risk group which includes children ages 6 months to 4 years, children ages 5 to 18 with health conditions, pregnant women, health care providers and primary care providers of infants under 6 months.
"So that those children who needed it the most, we identified in advance and we pulled their names and phone numbers and their need to get vaccinated," said Patsy Stinchfield, of Children's Hospital. "We tried to reach out to them as soon as we got vaccine."
Clinics being held for younger children between the ages of 5 and 9 are generally using the flu mist because it has a weakened live virus and is not suited for other groups, such as pregnant women.
The state health department said 99 percent of clinics seeing pregnant women have now received at least some of the vaccine, as well as 93 percent of clinics treating children.
Other school and medical group vaccination clinics are often invitation only.
"The Minnesota Department of Health has set this up to work through the clinics that children are already involved in," said Dr. Don Brunnquell, of Children's Hospital. "Because that was the best way they could get an estimate of how many doses we would need and order those doses through the federal government."
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota has now contacted all of its highest risk patients and made vaccine available through invitation only immunization clinics.
That includes about 15,000 kids seen at its specialty departments for cancer treatment or asthma, diabetes, etc.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes more vaccine available to the state, the local health department tells the federal government which clinics in Minnesota are approved to receive it and how much they have requested.
The CDC then authorizes the manufacturers to send vaccine directly to the clinics.
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