Vaccine shortage puts off flu shots in local schools

Washington County health officials say only a quarter of the vaccine ordered has arrived; state officials shift focus to at-risk patients

The Forest Grove News-Times, Nov 18, 2009

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They were popular while they lasted, but Washington County announced last week that school-based vaccine clinics were being postponed until the county received more swine flu (or H1N1) vaccine.

That move happened the same day that state officials announced a shift in the way they’d distribute the vaccine.

The state’s H1N1 vaccination strategy is changing to focus on people with chronic health problems, those state health officials say are most at risk for complications from the new flu virus that popped up early this year.

Dr. Mel Kohn, state public health director, told reporters Friday morning that beginning next week, the H1N1 flu vaccine would be targeted to children and adults up to 65 who have persistent health problems – such as asthma and other chronic health issues. That could be about 800,000 people in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.

"We want to make a special effort to make sure that children and adults up to 65 with underlying conditions get vaccinated right away," Kohn said. "We will allocate the amount of vaccine in each county to reach those folks with chronic medical conditions."

The new vaccination strategy began Monday.

A slow trickle of the H1N1 flu vaccine into the state and a close look at who was being seriously affected by the virus prompted the vaccination strategy change, Kohn said. Most of the original target groups – pregnant woman, children younger than 5, people who care for infants and health care workers – will still be considered a priority for the vaccine, he said, but the new strategy will turn its attention toward those up to 65 with chronic illnesses who often are hospitalized and die from the H1N1 flu complications.

“The virus has been circulating now long enough that we’re starting to get a clearer picture of who is being affected,” Kohn said. “People with underlying conditions of various kinds do appear to be at a higher risk, so we want to make sure that our response is appropriate to get to that group.”

Conditions that could put people at risk including asthma, heart or lung problems and weakened immune systems, Kohn said. “People with these conditions have less reserve. When their bodies get stressed from something serious like a flu infection, it affects them more than other, healthy people. What we’re seeing is these people are being hospitalized and are dying at a much higher rate because of the H1N1 flu infection.”

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