Free swine flu shots scheduled

<p>The Sonoma County Department of Health Services will be offering free vaccinations for the H1N1 (swine) flu at three clinics, including one in Petaluma, on Oct. 24.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The local clinic will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Casa Grande High School, at 333 Casa Grande Road, and will be set up as a walk-in clinic. The DHS isn’t sure what types of vaccine, nasal or injectable, will be offered, and advises residents to call its hotline at 565-4477 as the date nears. Additional clinics are planned for November and December, but dates haven’t been established. </p><p>Meanwhile, a small shipment of the H1N1 vaccine has arrived at the Petaluma Health Center, and a larger shipment is expected by late October or early November.</p><p>“We received approximately 700 doses of the nasal vaccine, and anticipate receiving an additional 6,500 doses,” said Dr. Nurit Licht, the PHC medical director. “We are setting up all policies and procedures related to administering it.</p><p>“We hope to have our vaccinations clinics up and running by the end of October. We’re shooting for Tuesday, Oct. 20.”</p><p>This vaccine is first being given to healthy children from ages 2 to 9 and to people who live in a household with an infant less than 6 months old, she said.</p><p>Primary-care providers who serve children 2 years old and under also are part of the priority group to receive the nasal spray.</p><p>Petaluma Valley Hospital hasn’t received any shipments of the vaccine, but expects to any day.</p><p>“We’ve requested enough for all of our staff that meets the criteria for health-care providers, and some for high-risk patients,” said Wendi Thomas, PVH’s nurse manager of emergency services.</p><p>The nasal vaccine was made available before the injectable kind simply because it was ready first, said the National Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention. The CDC recommends that the nasal vaccine be given only to people age 2 to 49 who do not have an underlying health problem.</p><p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of only one dose of the vaccine, but Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, says that for children under age 10, two doses may be required. The CDC suggests that the two doses be given three to four weeks apart.</p><p>When the injectable form of the vaccine arrives in the next few weeks, all of the previously mentioned priority groups should receive the vaccine, as well as pregnant women and additional health-care providers. People from 6 months to 24 years old should receive the vaccine, and people from age 25 to 64 should get it if they have a chronic health disorder or a compromised immune system, the CDC said.</p><p>The vaccine also will be available through family doctors and at some local pharmacies.</p><p>Many of the people who have contracted, and in some cases died from, H1N1 are much younger and healthier than the people normally affected by seasonal flus.</p><p>“The mentality of a lot of these young and healthy people is that they don’t need it, but they need to get the vaccine to protect not only themselves, but the people around them,” Thomas said.</p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>