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H1N1 vaccine coming for PAS students
Lincoln, Lyon, Murray and Pipestone (LLMP) Public Health will hold H1N1 vaccination clinics for students at Pipestone Area Elementary Schools Nov. 23 and 24.
The clinics will take place at Hill school on Nov. 23 and at Brown on Nov. 24. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and Edgerton elementary students received vaccinations this week, said Rita Dovre, nursing supervisor for LLMP Public Health. PAS elementary students had to wait because they received the seasonal flu vaccine the last week in October and there must be four weeks between vaccinations.
The vaccinations will mostly consist of the mist form with limited amounts of the injectable form set aside for those who cannot receive the mist due to health issues. While the vaccinations available at the schools will be offered only to elementary students, there will be a vaccination clinic at the Public Health office in the courthouse basement from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 24.
At that time, children older than six months but younger than school age, pregnant women, and parents and caregivers of children under six months can receive the vaccination. Dovre said there was a family vaccination clinic at the Public Health office on Nov. 3, but it was not made widely known.
“We had sent letters to all the daycares so the little ones could get it,” Dovre said. “We’re just a little bit scared to publish too much because the vaccines available are just for children.”
While there are many adults with health problems who would like the vaccine, there are simply not enough doses to go around at this time, she said. The current supply will be used up by the time all elementary schools in the four counties have received the vaccine.
“It will eventually be available for everyone, but we have to take our turn and follow the guidelines by the Minnesota Department of Health,” Dovre said.
Those guidelines are set forth by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Public Health participates in telephone conferences every Monday with the MDH and is told how many doses will be made available in this area. The number of doses released is based on availability and the population of the priority groups in each area.
Priority groups include pregnant women; people who live with or care for children younger than six months of age; healthcare and emergency workers; people from six months to 24 years of age and those at high risk due to chronic health disorders.
Children under six months cannot receive the vaccine because their immune systems are not mature enough to handle it. That’s why it is recommended that parents and caretakers of children under six months receive the vaccine.
H1N1 cases have slowed
Ironically, as more doses of the vaccine become available, the number of confirmed cases seems to be dropping off.
“It does seem to have slowed down,” said Julie Stevens, lab manager at PCMC. “I would say October was definitely the peak.”
Stevens said from the end of September until now the hospital has sent 17 samples from hospitalized patients in to the MDH and eight have been confirmed as H1N1. The majority of those confirmed cases came in mid-to-late October. Since then the number of confirmed cases has tapered off.
Teri Klosterman, PAS school nurse, said she observed a similar trend in the number of students absent from school. On Oct. 5, she said, 15 percent of the student body was absent. That’s compared to a typical absentee rate of two to three percent. Following the MEA break on Oct. 15 and 16, however, those numbers have returned to normal.
For now, those still interested in receiving the vaccine will have to wait. Eventually, Dovre said, doses will become more readily available and everyone who wants the vaccine should be able to receive it. When that time will be, she could not say.
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