H1N1 Vaccine to Arrive in Darien Soon

Manufacturers are beginning to ship doses of H1N1 vaccine to states across the country; Connecticut is among the first.

Governor M. Jodi Rell announced Thursday that 20,000 doses of the H1N1 nasal spray vaccine have arrived in Connecticut, and another 20,000 doses of both the injection and the nasal spray should arrive next week.

The Darien Health Department will receive its first shipment of the swine flu vaccine from the Connecticut Department of Public Health “in a couple of weeks,” Health Director David Knauf said Friday. Local pediatrics may receive the vaccine as soon as next week, he added. But demand across the town is high, and Knauf says that Darien will initially receive far fewer vaccines than requested.

“When I first sent in the application, we estimated 10 to 14 thousand doses. Here we have 20,000 doses for the entire state,” Knauf said.

Manufacturers will make limited deliveries to state health departments on a regular basis, as they “ramp up” their capacity to produce vaccine, Knauf said. Because children between the ages of two to four are most susceptible to swine flu, most of first H1N1 vaccine shipment will head to local pediatricians. As more shipments arrive weekly from the state government, everyone who wants a vaccine will ultimately get one, said Knauf.

“We may organize sustained large clinics in Darien, and depending on the survey results, we’ll have schools clinics as well. Everything hinges on when we receive the vaccine and how much,” said Knauf

This fall, Knauf said state authorities have documented “a couple” of swine flu cases in Darien.

“We closely monitor the absentee rates in the schools. We have seen no increase. It doesn’t look like at this point that there’s even a small occurrence of the flu. We have our fingers crossed,” he said.

Knauf said that recent cases of swine flu have presented similar, mild symptoms to those last year: fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue. People who have any of these symptoms, Knauf said, should stay home.

According to Centers for Disease Control, the federal government has spent $1 billion on the development of 250 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine; as of last Friday, Oct. 3, three million doses were available to order, and a total of six to seven million doses were expected to be available to order by the end of this week.

The state DPH began a program in late August to recruit private providers to provide the H1N1 vaccine when it became available. It is now up to providers, including the Darien Health Department to order the vaccine. The DPH, in turn, will decide based on patient demographics how much of their federal government allotted vaccines will go to each provider.

The H1N1 vaccine is only effective against the H1N1 virus and does not protect against seasonal influenza.  Public health officials also encourage immunization against seasonal flu, as well as the H1N1 virus.

A new public hotline for H1N1 began operating Monday Oct. 5 and will be staffed by representatives from DPH. The number is: 1-800-830-9426. The hotline is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For more information on the H1N1 virus or the seasonal flu in Connecticut visit the CT Flu Watch website.