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County cuts back on some area flu clinics
Focus shifts to other spots as effort gets under way
By RICK HUTZELL Editor
Published 09/30/09
The county Health Department has dropped five of its community flu shot clinics this year, citing declining interest at the sites and funding constraints.
Community clinics at the Pascal Senior Center and the Glen Burnie Improvement Association headquarters in Glen Burnie, the Brooklyn Park Senior Center, at Anne Arundel Community College and the Annapolis Senior Center were all dropped from the fall schedule, said Elin Jones, department spokesman.
She said all five have seen a declining number of people coming in for seasonal flu shots in recent years, and the department had to adjust its schedule this year to meeting a smaller budget.
"We did have to look at supply and demand," she said.
Jones cited the decline at the Pascal Senior Center as an example. In 2005, the department provided 1,475 doses at the center or Dorsey Road. Last year, it gave out only 564.
Nancy Allred, director of the center, said no one seemed upset by the decision.
"The thing is people are getting them so many other places," she said. "What I've told people here is we are going to get them their flu shots. I'm not hearing negatives."
Jones said all of the areas where clinics were cut have other sources of seasonal flu shots, such as the department's walk in-clinics in Glen Burnie, Odenton and Annapolis, private physicians and clinics as well as drug and grocery stores.
Big community clinics are still being held at the Pasadena Senior Center, O'Malley Senior Center, Health Services Building in Annapolis, the Arnold Senior Center and the South County Senior Center.
The clinics provide the vaccine for the seasonal flu, not the swine flu vaccine expected to be available next month.
The cuts come despite advice from health officials for the public to get immunized against both the seasonal flu and H1N1, or swine flu, this season.
The health department plans to administer about 11,430 doses of the flu vaccine this season. The county Health Department will start its remaining community clinics next month.
At the Glen Burnie Health Center, which administers the vaccine on Friday, 36 doses were distributed on Sept. 11. That went up to 83 on Sept. 18, Jones said.
The Parole Health Center, which offers walk-in clinics on Monday and Wednesday, distributed 20 doses during the week of Sept. 7. That increased to 70 immunizations the week of Sept. 14.
On Saturday, the Maryland Veterans Administration Health Clinic in Glen Burnie will offer a drive through flu shot clinic for enrolled veterans.
Vets are asked to wear short sleeve shirts and be ready to extend their arms out their car windows for the shot.
The clinic will be held at 808 Landmark Drive, Suite 128 from 9 a.m. to noon.
At county schools, parents had to turn in permission slips by Friday if they wanted their children to receive the seasonal flu vaccine at school. More than 14,000 consent forms were received, which is about 40 percent of the kindergarten and elementary school students in county public schools. Last year, 13,163 students received the vaccine at school.
"Due to the H1N1, there's been a lot of conversations about seasonal flu and H1N1," schools spokesman Bob Mosier said. "We've talked about it a lot in our schools. ? The more students that can take advantage of it, the better for everybody."
Each year, complications from the seasonal flu killed an average of 36,000 people and hospitalize more than 200,000 nationwide.
On Monday, Gov. Martin O'Malley stopped by the Motor Vehicle Administration in Glen Burnie to get his flu shot. He admitted he was "one of those" who never had a seasonal flu vaccine before.
"We need to do everything we can," O'Malley said. "(The vaccine) does help protect our public health infrastructure from a surge they would have no hope of keeping up with."
For more information on seasonal and swine flu, visit www.flu.maryland.gov.
Staff writers Shantee Woodards, Liam Farrell and Sean Patrick Norris contributed to this story.
Focus shifts to other spots as effort gets under way
By RICK HUTZELL Editor
Published 09/30/09
The county Health Department has dropped five of its community flu shot clinics this year, citing declining interest at the sites and funding constraints.
Community clinics at the Pascal Senior Center and the Glen Burnie Improvement Association headquarters in Glen Burnie, the Brooklyn Park Senior Center, at Anne Arundel Community College and the Annapolis Senior Center were all dropped from the fall schedule, said Elin Jones, department spokesman.
She said all five have seen a declining number of people coming in for seasonal flu shots in recent years, and the department had to adjust its schedule this year to meeting a smaller budget.
"We did have to look at supply and demand," she said.
Jones cited the decline at the Pascal Senior Center as an example. In 2005, the department provided 1,475 doses at the center or Dorsey Road. Last year, it gave out only 564.
Nancy Allred, director of the center, said no one seemed upset by the decision.
"The thing is people are getting them so many other places," she said. "What I've told people here is we are going to get them their flu shots. I'm not hearing negatives."
Jones said all of the areas where clinics were cut have other sources of seasonal flu shots, such as the department's walk in-clinics in Glen Burnie, Odenton and Annapolis, private physicians and clinics as well as drug and grocery stores.
Big community clinics are still being held at the Pasadena Senior Center, O'Malley Senior Center, Health Services Building in Annapolis, the Arnold Senior Center and the South County Senior Center.
The clinics provide the vaccine for the seasonal flu, not the swine flu vaccine expected to be available next month.
The cuts come despite advice from health officials for the public to get immunized against both the seasonal flu and H1N1, or swine flu, this season.
The health department plans to administer about 11,430 doses of the flu vaccine this season. The county Health Department will start its remaining community clinics next month.
At the Glen Burnie Health Center, which administers the vaccine on Friday, 36 doses were distributed on Sept. 11. That went up to 83 on Sept. 18, Jones said.
The Parole Health Center, which offers walk-in clinics on Monday and Wednesday, distributed 20 doses during the week of Sept. 7. That increased to 70 immunizations the week of Sept. 14.
On Saturday, the Maryland Veterans Administration Health Clinic in Glen Burnie will offer a drive through flu shot clinic for enrolled veterans.
Vets are asked to wear short sleeve shirts and be ready to extend their arms out their car windows for the shot.
The clinic will be held at 808 Landmark Drive, Suite 128 from 9 a.m. to noon.
At county schools, parents had to turn in permission slips by Friday if they wanted their children to receive the seasonal flu vaccine at school. More than 14,000 consent forms were received, which is about 40 percent of the kindergarten and elementary school students in county public schools. Last year, 13,163 students received the vaccine at school.
"Due to the H1N1, there's been a lot of conversations about seasonal flu and H1N1," schools spokesman Bob Mosier said. "We've talked about it a lot in our schools. ? The more students that can take advantage of it, the better for everybody."
Each year, complications from the seasonal flu killed an average of 36,000 people and hospitalize more than 200,000 nationwide.
On Monday, Gov. Martin O'Malley stopped by the Motor Vehicle Administration in Glen Burnie to get his flu shot. He admitted he was "one of those" who never had a seasonal flu vaccine before.
"We need to do everything we can," O'Malley said. "(The vaccine) does help protect our public health infrastructure from a surge they would have no hope of keeping up with."
For more information on seasonal and swine flu, visit www.flu.maryland.gov.
Staff writers Shantee Woodards, Liam Farrell and Sean Patrick Norris contributed to this story.
