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Featured StoryPosted on Mon, Aug. 31, 2009
Sedgwick County needs volunteers to give flu shots
BY DEB GRUVER
To prepare for H1N1 as well as it can, the Sedgwick County Health Department is looking for volunteers to give vaccinations and for schools willing to participate in an absentee study.
The Health Department will lead local efforts to respond to H1N1 pandemic flu. It won't investigate every case but instead will focus on clusters of cases to try to minimize the spread of the disease, its director, Claudia Blackburn, told county commissioners recently.
The department is preparing for the worst:
Experts estimate that 20 to 40 percent of the population could be sickened by H1N1. Sedgwick County's population is 483,000, which means 96,600 to 193,200 people could become ill.
"However, with a vaccine, we would hope it would be a lot less than that," Blackburn said.
The vaccine for the seasonal flu should be available next month. The H1N1 vaccine still is being tested but likely will be available by mid-October, she said.
The county hopes to immunize as many people as possible with the least amount of inconvenience and disruption to business, Blackburn said, adding that she hopes most people will be able to get the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines at the same time. Immunity is expected to develop about two weeks after the vaccine is administered.
The county expects to receive $5.2 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to pay for H1N1 vaccinations.
Priority groups would be vaccinated in mid-October and the general public in November, depending on when the vaccine becomes available.
Pregnant women will be given top priority, followed by health care and emergency workers, caregivers for children younger than 6 months, people ages 6 months to 24 years and people ages 25 through 64 with chronic medical conditions.
"Eighty percent of the cases so far have involved people under 35," Blackburn said.
Although the cost of supplies will be covered, Sedgwick County needs people to administer the vaccinations. That's where the Medical Reserve Corps comes in, Blackburn said.
About 100 people volunteer their services, and half of them are licensed to give vaccinations, Blackburn said.
The county hopes more people ? especially those who can give shots ? will step forward to volunteer.
"I think that will be a big need," Blackburn said.
To volunteer, health professionals can go online to www.sedgwickcounty.org and scroll down to "Medical Reserve Corps" on the department's menu or call 316-660-7344.
The county also is trying to get as many schools as possible, including universities, to report when students miss classes because of flu. That will help track clusters of the illness.
Commissioner Karl Peterjohn said he left a recent teleconference of a statewide summit on H1N1 feeling a little queasy ? not physically, but mentally.
First, Peterjohn noted, H1N1 ? unlike typical seasonal flu ? strikes young people the hardest.
"If you have a 32-year-old mother of two who is 6 months pregnant and she doesn't make it, that's going to be a much bigger shock," Peterjohn said.
"The scope of this may really test our ability to deal with a significant health problem."
Peterjohn remembers getting a swine flu shot in 1976 to prepare for an epidemic that never happened.
"I hope this proves to be like that," he said. "That flu turned out to be relatively innocuous.
"I'm quietly hopeful that the experts are wrong. But the old Boy Scout in me is saying, 'Be prepared.' "
http://www.kansas.com/news/featured/story/951083.html
Sedgwick County needs volunteers to give flu shots
BY DEB GRUVER
To prepare for H1N1 as well as it can, the Sedgwick County Health Department is looking for volunteers to give vaccinations and for schools willing to participate in an absentee study.
The Health Department will lead local efforts to respond to H1N1 pandemic flu. It won't investigate every case but instead will focus on clusters of cases to try to minimize the spread of the disease, its director, Claudia Blackburn, told county commissioners recently.
The department is preparing for the worst:
Experts estimate that 20 to 40 percent of the population could be sickened by H1N1. Sedgwick County's population is 483,000, which means 96,600 to 193,200 people could become ill.
"However, with a vaccine, we would hope it would be a lot less than that," Blackburn said.
The vaccine for the seasonal flu should be available next month. The H1N1 vaccine still is being tested but likely will be available by mid-October, she said.
The county hopes to immunize as many people as possible with the least amount of inconvenience and disruption to business, Blackburn said, adding that she hopes most people will be able to get the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines at the same time. Immunity is expected to develop about two weeks after the vaccine is administered.
The county expects to receive $5.2 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to pay for H1N1 vaccinations.
Priority groups would be vaccinated in mid-October and the general public in November, depending on when the vaccine becomes available.
Pregnant women will be given top priority, followed by health care and emergency workers, caregivers for children younger than 6 months, people ages 6 months to 24 years and people ages 25 through 64 with chronic medical conditions.
"Eighty percent of the cases so far have involved people under 35," Blackburn said.
Although the cost of supplies will be covered, Sedgwick County needs people to administer the vaccinations. That's where the Medical Reserve Corps comes in, Blackburn said.
About 100 people volunteer their services, and half of them are licensed to give vaccinations, Blackburn said.
The county hopes more people ? especially those who can give shots ? will step forward to volunteer.
"I think that will be a big need," Blackburn said.
To volunteer, health professionals can go online to www.sedgwickcounty.org and scroll down to "Medical Reserve Corps" on the department's menu or call 316-660-7344.
The county also is trying to get as many schools as possible, including universities, to report when students miss classes because of flu. That will help track clusters of the illness.
Commissioner Karl Peterjohn said he left a recent teleconference of a statewide summit on H1N1 feeling a little queasy ? not physically, but mentally.
First, Peterjohn noted, H1N1 ? unlike typical seasonal flu ? strikes young people the hardest.
"If you have a 32-year-old mother of two who is 6 months pregnant and she doesn't make it, that's going to be a much bigger shock," Peterjohn said.
"The scope of this may really test our ability to deal with a significant health problem."
Peterjohn remembers getting a swine flu shot in 1976 to prepare for an epidemic that never happened.
"I hope this proves to be like that," he said. "That flu turned out to be relatively innocuous.
"I'm quietly hopeful that the experts are wrong. But the old Boy Scout in me is saying, 'Be prepared.' "
http://www.kansas.com/news/featured/story/951083.html