Community Notice: H1N1 Flu Vaccine Status Report

We have been receiving many calls from people wanting to know when H1N1 vaccine will be available. There has been considerable media attention given to this flu so public concerns are high. Unfortunately, there are only very limited amounts of vaccine available at this time and as a result, the State and Federal Government have established a priority list for individuals eligible to receive the vaccine until supplies are more plentiful. It is important to realize that this is a national situation; it is not localized to Connecticut or Darien. Every section of the country is facing the same difficulty.

FluMist nasal spray is available in limited amounts but its use is restricted to:

• Healthy children age two through six years
• Healthy household contacts and caregivers of infants less than 6 months old
• Healthy hospital healthcare workers and EMS personnel

Injectable vaccine is less available than the nasal spray and its use is restricted to:

• Pregnant women
• Household contacts and caregivers of infants less than six-months-old
• All children aged six months through four years (59 months)
• Children age five through 18 years with high risk medical conditions
• Hospital healthcare workers and EMS personnel

Darien has ordered but not received vaccine yet. The State will be notifying those who will receive vaccine shipments during the week of Oct. 26. Hopefully we will receive some supplies and we hope to be able to serve the needs of the restricted population, as described above, soon thereafter.

In the meantime, please contact the Stamford hotline at 203-977-6172 to schedule an appointment in Stamford. Please be patient when making that call as they are handling a large volume of calls.

If you or a family member is in the above priority group, call this office at 203-656-7320. We are compiling a list and will contact you when we receive the vaccine.

Once the target population (see above) has been served, the next level of priority will be school-aged children. We have ongoing planning sessions with the Darien School Superintendent about organizing clinics in schools. Unfortunately, it would be premature to schedule those clinics without knowing when vaccine will be available.

OPEN CLINICS WILL NOT BE HELD UNTIL VACCINE IS WIDELY AVAILABLE.

We will provide notification of vaccine availability through www.darienct.gov and other media outlets including Darien Patch.

David Knauf, MPH, MS, RS
Director of Health
203-656-7320
dknauf@darienct.gov

Barrington Bogle, MPH, RS, CHES
Assistant Director of Health
bbogle@darienct.gov