Flu Update for October 8, 2009

ADH Office of Communications
Ed Barham, 501-280-4147

Immediate Release
October 8, 2009

• Each week the CDC provides states an estimated amount of H1N1 FLU vaccine available to order.  ADH orders the maximum amount available each week.  To date, the amounts actually available have been considerably smaller than expected.  Therefore, it is hard to know exactly how much Arkansas will receive and when it will come in.  Eventually, there will be enough vaccine for everyone that wants it.  High risk groups will be targeted for the first shipments of vaccine. Children ages 6 months to 24 years are one of the priority groups.  The fastest, most efficient way to vaccinate the most children will be through the upcoming statewide school flu clinics and the initial vaccine supply will be for the first of these clinics. School clinics will be going on for the next several months.  To find out when and where the vaccine will be available, Arkansans are encouraged to go to the ADH website at www.healthyarkansas.com for details.
  
  
• As Arkansas gets more H1N1 vaccine, those doses will be given to other priority groups first. These include pregnant women, health care workers and emergency medical responders, people caring for infants under 6 months of age, and people ages 25-64 years with underlying health conditions (like asthma, diabetes). Pregnant women and people with chronic medical conditions cannot receive the nasal flu mist. Initially, the doses of vaccine we receive will be in the nasal flu mist form but the department expects to receive doses in the ‘shot’ form by mid-October
  
  
• It is important for every Arkansan to receive both the seasonal and
  H1N1 flu vaccine. CDC is advising people to get the vaccine even if it is suspected that that individual has had the H1N1 flu.   Lab testing conducted in your physician’s office is not designed to test for H1N1 flu and, therefore, is not reliable.  Taking the vaccine will not hurt you even if you have had the flu.   
  ADH—H1N1 Vaccine 2
  

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