H1N1 vaccine exhausted, warnings up for Thanksgiving

Heading into the long Thanksgiving weekend, Sonoma County public health officials are effectively emptying the refrigerator of swine flu vaccine, an effort to get the scarce vaccine to pregnant women and children.

And they warn the holiday season is no time to let up on the public health battle against the H1N1 flu. The cautionary note comes amid a a nationwide call for vigilance this weekend, even as the illness appears to be on the decline.

Dr. Mark Netherda, the county’s deputy health officer, said that with families and friends coming together this Thanksgiving, people should continue to practice good hygiene by frequently washing hands, covering coughs and staying home when ill to avoid exposing others.

“There’s a lot of friendly hugging and kissing going on when we greet relatives and loved ones we haven’t seen for a while,” Netherda said. “And if you’re sick you, may have to miss one of those holiday dinners or holiday parties.”

On Monday afternoon, the county delivered about 600 doses of preservative-free H1N1 vaccine to local obstetricians and women’s clinics, and about 100 doses of vaccine to local pediatricians. Today, the county plans to deliver another 110 doses of vaccine to private doctors and clinics.

“We’re going into a holiday, so that would be four more days that the vaccine would just be sitting idle in our refrigerator,” Netherda said. “We’ll effectively come out at the end of this with no vaccine.”

Nationally, the federal government has launched a new travel and health campaign, putting up posters in airports, seaports and at border crossings in time for Thanksgiving.

The campaign also includes advertisements with slogans such as “Stop, Wash & Go.” Thanksgiving is typically followed by at least a modest bump in early seasonal flu cases, based on flu reports from the past few years.

Currently, H1N1 flu accounts for nearly all flu cases, and despite weeks of declining infections, health officials are staying vigilant. Swine flu has sickened an estimated 22 million Americans, hospitalized about 98,000 and killed 4,000 since it was first identified last April.

In Sonoma County, 131 people have been hospitalized for H1N1 flu-related illnesses, with 24 of these cases ending up in intensive care units. There have been 10 H1N1-related deaths.

Netherda said there are signs that the latest wave of H1N1 infections are declining. But he warned that this means the county has yet to see the wave’s second half of illnesses.

Flu typically comes in waves of eight to ten weeks, he said, with the first wave of H1N1 centered around the months of May, June and July.

The current H1N1 wave — the second thus far — came in September, October and November.

“We have every reason to believe there could be another wave coming,” Netherda said. “Historically, that’s what we’ve seen with these types of pandemics, such as the one in 1918.”

Netherda urged people not to let their guard down.

“We’ve seen a lot of flu, but we haven’t really entered into our flu season,” he said.