Whitley Health Department out of flu vaccine

The Whitley County Health Department has no more seasonal flu shots available this year and will announce when the H1N1 vaccine arrives and is available to the general public.

The good news is that more seasonal flu vaccine for children is on its way, but health department officials aren’t sure when it will arrive yet.

"We are out of adult flu vaccine, but we do have some vaccine for children from the state. It is only for children who have no insurance or Medicaid or their insurance will not pay for the flu shot," said Public Health Nursing Supervisor Tamara Johnson.

A large amount of flu mist vaccine for school age children has been ordered, but health department officials don’t know when it will arrive.

When it arrives, there will be no state restrictions on who can get that vaccine except that they are school age children, she said.

Johnson said that the health department reduced its order of seasonal flu vaccine this year to 1,000 doses.

"We ordered less this year because we had a lot we had to throw away last year," she said. "We decreased our order this year not knowing this H1N1 was going to hit making more people aware that they needed flu shots."

The health department started giving the seasonal flu shots on Aug. 31 but ran out of vaccine in two to three weeks and no more will be available this year.

The seasonal vaccine has to be ordered by February each year in order for it to arrive by early September.
Johnson recommends that people still wanting a seasonal flu shot contact their family doctor or local pharmacies that sometimes have flu shot clinics.

The H1N1 vaccine will start arriving early next month, but Johnson warns that the health department will only receive small amounts of it at first. The initial vaccine will be reserved for pregnant women, health care workers, and people taking care of babies less than six months of age.

An announcement will be made when the health department is ready to start giving H1N1 vaccinations to the general public, Johnson said.