Swine flu clinic is only for target groups

<p>A local clinic is expected to be set up to administer free, injectable swine (H1N1) flu vaccines on Saturday, Oct. 24 at Casa Grande High School, although the Sonoma County official handling issues related to the virus says that the clinic is meant for people who are in one of five target groups, and aren’t able to obtain the vaccine from their physicians and health clinics.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>“The county clinics are intended for people in five priority groups who aren’t able to get the vaccine elsewhere,” said Dr. Mark Netherda, deputy health officer for Sonoma County. “People could be turned away if they aren’t in one of the target groups.”</p><p>Those groups are: people who live in a household with, or provide daily care to, an infant less than 6 months old; people age 6 months to 24 years old; pregnant women; adults 25 to 64 years old who have chronic conditions that put them at risk from flu complications; and health-care providers and emergency medical workers.</p><p>The clinic will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Casa Grande High School, at 333 Casa Grande Road. Two other Sonoma County clinics were scheduled to administer the vaccine the same day, but now only one of them will offer it.</p><p>“This is because we won’t be getting as many doses of the vaccine as we had hoped,” Netherda said. “We just found out on Monday that we would be receiving 8,000 doses, and they will be split between two sites.”</p><p>The clinic at Casa Grande originally was scheduled for Oct. 17, but had to be delayed until Oct. 24 because the county did not receive any shipments of the vaccine. And until Monday, Netherda wasn’t assured that the county would receive them in time for the Oct. 24 clinics.</p><p>“From what we understand, the federal government purchased the vaccines, and sent them out to the state, but there seemed to be a manufacturing delay in packing and shipping them,” Netherda said.</p><p>He expects that shipments subsequently will be sent out on a weekly basis, but that the vaccine probably will be available only to the target groups until December.</p><p>“I expect that everyone who wants the vaccine eventually will be able to get it,” he added.</p><p>Another county clinic will be set up at Casa Grande from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 21. The H1N1 vaccine again will be administered free of charge, but just as with the Oct. 24 clinic, no seasonal flu vaccines will be available there. </p><p>Seasonal flu vaccines and H1N1 vaccines will be available from 9 a.m. to noon on Dec. 5 at the Petaluma Health Center, at 1301 Southpoint Blvd. A $10 donation will be requested for the seasonal vaccine, and the H1N1 vaccine will be administered free of charge.</p><p>Netherda says that contrary to some reports, this flu season is proceeding just as expected.</p><p>“We expected it to be widespread all along, and it’s actually on target for what we expected. We are seeing much higher numbers, but we expected to because it’s a bad flu season. This is only the beginning of the flu season, so we expect that the situation will get worse,” he said.</p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>