The state Division of Public Health (DPH) announced plans on Monday, Nov. 1 to open flu vaccine clinics to distribute vaccine to residents in high-risk groups identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). DPH will announce the schedule of clinics next week.
High-risk categories are defined by the Oct. 21, 2004, Order to Control Vaccination from Delaware Health and Social Services as:
- All children aged 6-23 months;
- Adults aged 65 years and older;
- People aged 2-64 years with underlying chronic medical conditions;
- All women who will be pregnant during the influenza season;
- Residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities;
- Children aged 6 months to 18 years on chronic aspirin therapy;
- Healthcare workers involved in direct patient care; and
- Out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children aged less than 6 months.
The clinic schedule will be released next week. The health department asks that residents not call to ask for more details until the schedule is released. Instead, Delawareans should call their personal physicians, watch the news, and monitor the DPH website at www.state.de.us/dhss/dph <http://www.state.de.us/dhss/dph> for an announcement of clinic schedules and other updates about the vaccine, state health officials said.
DPH has received a shipment of 12,000 doses of influenza vaccine. The shipment is part of the first phase of a national plan to allocate 22.4 million doses after half of the nation's expected 2004-2005 flu vaccine supply became unavailable. DPH had not been informed of how many doses of vaccine would be shipped or when. A plan to distribute vaccine to Delawareans in high-risk groups only will be complete next week.
“We are pleased to receive this shipment of vaccine earlier than expected,” said DPH director Jaime H. Rivera, MD.
The CDC said that vaccine also is being shipped directly to private healthcare providers. DPH recommends that people in the high-risk categories take the following steps:
- Do not call or go to a hospital for flu vaccination. Hospitals are using their vaccine for their sickest patients and to assure that they have a healthy staff to provide care.
- Call your private physician to find out the likelihood and timing of receiving vaccine
- Veterans must be enrolled with the Veterans Administration to receive the vaccine through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Elsmere. For more information, call 302-633-5209.
- If you become sick with flu-like symptoms, call your doctor immediately. Your doctor can prescribe medicines that reduce the severity of flu if he or she knows within two days of the onset of flu symptoms.
- Ask your doctor about being vaccinated against pneumonia (pneumococcal vaccine), one of flu’s most common and potentially severe complications.
DPH was one of many state health agencies nationwide that did not receive its flu vaccine because DPH's order of 22,000 doses was assigned to Chiron, the manufacturer whose vaccine was withheld due to bacterial contamination. Aventis Pasteur is the only other manufacturer of injectable flu vaccine that is appropriate for use among high-risk individuals.
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