H1N1 vaccines: Waiting for more

• Communities to decide how to distribute vaccinations

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Will Homer children soon receive flu vaccinations at school like Anchorage students?
Probably not until later in November, said Kenai Peninsula School District’s Health Services Coordinator Naomi Walsworth.
“We’re just waiting to get enough to provide the shots,” Walsworth said Monday. “The State hasn’t received enough for distribution on that level yet. The shortage on the national level impacts us.”
When school district shipments do begin to arrive, the priority distribution will be in the following order to vaccinate the most vulnerable age groups first: Paul Banks Elementary School, McNeil Canyon, Chapman School in Anchor Point, then West Homer, Homer Middle School and Homer High School.
So far, Homer has been apportioned 540 doses of the swine flu vaccine in three shipments, including doses en route from this week’s order.
“It’s a continuous situation,” said Greg Wilkinson, spokesman for the Alaska Department Health and Human Services’ Infectious diseases division. “More is to come every week, but the problem is that it is not enough for everyone. What is allocated today won’t be received until next week.”
Each town in Alaska is allotted a certain number of vaccinations based on population. Anchorage has 42 percent of the state’s population, so it receives that amount of any incoming vaccination doses arriving weekly from the Centers for Disease Control, Wilkinson said.
On Monday, Homer was allocated a new batch, though the actual number of doses to be sent out won’t be known until after the calculation process, Wilkinson said. This week’s batch will be divided among the Homer Medical Clinic, Safeway, the Seldovia Village Tribal Clinic, Kachemak Bay Medical Clinic and South Peninsula Hospital. The Homer Public Health Clinic will not receive doses in this batch but likely should in the next shipment, Wilkinson said.
The SVT Health Center has not yet received its allotment, so was targeted to receive their first from this most recent batch set for Homer. Likewise, local emergency medical responders also have not been vaccinated yet, said Homer Fire Chief Bob Painter. Nanwalek also did not receive the vaccination in previous shipments, but was set to receive its first batch on Tuesday.
“It’s a bit like spreading peanut butter on a piece of bread. Only it’s not a lot of peanut butter and it’s a very big slice of bread,” Wilkinson said.
Distribution orders are made on a near-daily basis. The CDC makes announcements about how many of the vaccinations are available each morning, and states can order a portion based on their population. For example, on Oct. 27, Alaska’s Heath and Human Services placed an order for 4,000; on Oct. 28, none was made available. On Oct. 29, the State ordered another 2,800 doses, and on Friday, Oct. 30, they were able to order 6,900 doses.
Alaska has received 67,750 doses of vaccine as of Nov. 3. The State makes suggestions to communities about how to distribute the shots based on the five priority groups. Ultimately, however, it is up to the community or providers to decide how they distribute the shots, Wilkinson said.
In Homer’s case, a Pandemic work group of community health and city officials meets on Mondays to discuss aspects of emergency preparedness. School district staff is also part of the group, as is South Peninsula Hospital, SVT, Homer Public Health and the Homer Fire Department.
In keeping with federal recommendations, the five groups in Homer considered to be priorities for receiving the H1N1 vaccine include pregnant women; anyone who lives with or cares for children younger than 6 months old; health-care and emergency service workers; everyone age 6 months–24 years old; and adults age 25–64 who have chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.
Numbers of vaccinations available are a “moving target,” Wilkinson warns, so people should phone providers to check on the vaccinations’ availability. But the vaccinations will keep coming to communities that request them until they are no longer available, he said.
Health and Human Services issued a press release Tuesday morning saying that, beginning Nov. 1, the State is asking hospitals to report the number of patients hospitalized with signs and symptoms of pneumonia and flu, in addition to the number of people hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza infection. Previously, only patients with lab-confirmed influenza, either seasonal or H1N1, were counted in the report. The effort is to better track all known cases, which then will be posted on the CDC Web site for update each Wednesday.

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