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From The Observer News
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By MELODY JAMESON mj@observernews.net Hampered by a restricted and unpredictable supply, county health department nurses are getting swine flu vaccine to South County public school students only on a limited basis. Today, Thursday, November 12, is the last day the H1N1 influenza inoculations for elementary youngsters are scheduled in South Hillsborough County for the foreseeable future. And, only some of the region’s high school and middle school students have received the vaccinations in the last two weeks. Health department authorities say the vaccine supply is so restricted they cannot calculate how many doses they will have for distribution from one week to the next. The result is no more free-of-charge vaccinations for South County public school students currently are scheduled. Vaccination of Hillsborough’s public school students with parental or guardian permissions began on October 20 at several of the county system’s exceptional student education centers and continued during the week of October 26 at five high schools and four middle schools spotted across the county, according to Linda Cobbe, the school system’s external communications manager. This day-time, in class schedule included both Eisenhower Middle School and East Bay High School among those 15 facilities. An evening hours inoculation program for elementary school, charter school and virtual school pupils began last week, the week of November 2, using mostly high schools as “after-school” vaccination centers. None of the first four “after school” sites scattered across Tampa and Seffner included a South County institution. Some 15,600 doses of the swine flu vaccine, either injected or in mist form, had been administered in the school inoculation programs by the end of last week, Cobbe said. Five more county school plants joined the roster as “after-school” centers this week, one of them Riverview High School on Boyette Road. Inoculations were slated for grade, charter or virtual school youngsters accompanied by parents or guardians and with a completed permission forms between 3:30 and 7 PM, Monday, Tuesday and today. ***image 2*** The day time, during the school day vaccinations are scheduled to continue next week, the week of November 16, at three more of the county’s high schools as well as three middle schools for those students with completed permission forms. None of those six facilities is located in South Hillsborough. The inoculation program is to be suspended during the following week, the week of November 23 and the last week of the month, which includes the Thanksgiving Day holiday, Cobbe noted. And from this point forward, neither health department nor school system personnel could state this week when the vaccine again would be available to South County students through the school-based programs. In forthcoming weeks, both East Bay and Lennard High Schools are expected to become sites in the “after school” program, Cobbe said, adding she could not say when, pending “availability of the vaccine.” She also could not predict when vaccinations would transpire during the school day for Lennard students or for pupils at the region’s other middle schools. The same uncertainly was echoed by Steve Huard, a communications consultant with the health department. The department orders vaccine on a weekly basis and, while it might try to obtain 3,000 doses in an order, the actual delivery may be for a mere 1,500 doses, he said. This circumstance means that more vaccine can be acquired only as part of the next weekly order, he added. Planning administration of the flu vaccine has become “a challenge,” he acknowledged, but he asserted “no one area of the county is being left out.” Cindy Hardy, assistant nursing director at the health department, also emphasized that the South County was not being ignored. Given the limited amount of vaccine that can be acquired by the department, it has chosen to focus first on the county’s school age population where the influenza can so easily spread due to the close quarters of classrooms and eating arrangements, she said. The plan, she noted, has been to spread what vaccine is on hand among the county’s large number of schools through the in-school and “after school” programs. Both the county health department’s website and its call center supplies information about the swine flu vaccine distribution programs. The website address is www.SDHC.K12.FL.US/Flu and the call center telephone number is 813-307-8073. Permission forms for elementary age youngsters planning to obtain the vaccine at “after-school” sites in the future can be downloaded from the website or found at the vaccination centers. © 2009 Melody Jameson © Copyright 2008 by The Observer News Publications and M&M Printing |
