As the national swine flu vaccination campaign kicked off Monday in three states — Indiana, Illinois, and Tennessee — there was little new information about when such an effort might start in Taylor County.

While the Abilene Independent School District is seeing an earlier onset of flu season than normal, some Abilene pharmacies struggled Tuesday to provide enough jobs.pharmacy-bg.com/tag/vaccine/”title=”vaccine” >vaccine protecting against seasonal strains.

Linda Langston, director of health services with the Abilene Independent School District, said the AISD has not seen a spike in absences, with the number of students out remaining fairly steady over recent weeks. Last week, there were 77 confirmed cases of flu and 135 flu-like cases reported through school nurses, she said.

Flu-related absences are not targeting any particular school but are pretty evenly spread out through the school system, she said.

The number of students out sick has been only about a percentage point or two more than normal, Langston said.

“It’s really not any worse than it was at this time last year,” she said.

What has changed is the mixture of illnesses present on local campuses.

“At this time last year, we weren’t seeing as much flu,” she said. “We’re seeing flu a lot earlier this year than we ever have seen it in the past.”

Joey Light, superintendent of the Wylie Independent School District, said that districtwide absences stand at 249, a figure that represents a 92.6 attendance rate. Average yearly attendance stands around 96 percent, he said.

Light guessed the numbers would be typical for a flu season.

Jody Manuel, a physician assistant at the Minor Emergency Clinic on South 27th Street, said that the clinic was seeing what he would classify as “influenza syndrome,” with not as many positive cases derived from rapid flu tests as one might expect.

“We have about 60 percent actually coming up positive” with a detectable strain of flu, he said.

Rapid tests provide results within 15 minutes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results depend entirely on the test administered, with some able to identify the difference between common types of influenza, others that can identify such viruses but cannot distinguish between types.

Like many places that have offer seasonal flu injections in Abilene, the clinic had run out of shots Monday evening, though it expected a new shipment possibly today.

Abilene pharmacist James McCoy said that there seems to be a “major shortage” of seasonal flu vaccine.

McCoy said that while some Abilene businesses may have received all of their requested doses, others only got 25 percent to 30 percent of their orders.

“Right now all the focus is going on H1N1,” he said, saying that the shortage seemed to be nationwide.

That means many businesses, McCoy’s included, spent much time on the phone Monday looking for more supply.

“We’re being told that later in October or around the first of November, when all the H1N1 (vaccine) gets sent out, that they may have some more released,” McCoy said.

Steve Owen, owner of Owen Pharmacy, said Monday that he couldn’t satisfy his demand for seasonal flu shots, and was on the phone with a third-party company to buy more.

“The reason there’s a shortage is that the two major manufacturers, thanks to Washington, D.C., are discontinuing their seasonal flu immunizations and going to the H1N1,” he said. “That’s the directive they’ve been given by the CDC in Atlanta from Barack Obama’s office.”

The vaccines cannot be produced at the same time, he said.

“You can’t do both at once,” he said, While the H1N1 flu can be deadly, Owen said that one needs the seasonal flu shot before they get “anything else.”

“That’s what a lot of people aren’t going to get this year, unfortunately,” he said.

More than 200,000 people in the United States are hospitalized from flu-related complications each year, and about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes, according to the CDC Web site.

The city of Abilene recently exhausted its supply of seasonal vaccine for adults, with children’s vaccine in “very limited” supply, said Larry Johnson, health administrator for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District.

Additional vaccine may be available later this month, with information released if supplies are replenished, Johnson said.

“Some local providers may receive shipments in October,” Johnson said, meaning people should contact health care providers and/or local pharmacies for availability.

A limited supply of H1N1 nasal mist vaccine — 237,000 doses — will be available to Texas for the week ending Oct. 9, Johnson said.

The vaccine will be allocated by the Texas Department of Health Services to some health care providers who have registered to receive it, he said.

But because allotments are small, supplies are too limited to begin significant vaccination programs. Initial shipments to state health department regions and local health departments will also be very small, he said.

“The health district will provide additional information as it becomes available,” Johnson said.

Pharmacies await swine flu vaccine is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Vaccinations against the H1N1 swine flu virus began in the United States this week as part of the Obama administration’s mass immunization effort to help limit the worst effects of the pandemic.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects up to 7 million doses of jobs.pharmacy-bg.com/tag/vaccine/”title=”vaccine” >vaccine by the end of this week, mainly AstraZeneca unit MedImmune’s nasal spray.

The U.S. government has ordered vaccine from five companies: Sanofi-Aventis SA, CSL Ltd, Novartis AG, GlaxoSmithKline and MedImmune.

H1N1 flu vaccination, H1N1, flu, vaccination, program

Here are some questions and answers about the immunization program:

HOW MUCH MONEY IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SPENDING TO BUY

AND DISTRIBUTE VACCINE?

The federal government has spent or set aside $6.4 billion for H1N1 immunization so far. About $1.5 billion is for enough bulk antigen to create over 250 million vaccine doses, according to official statistics. The sum also includes $1.4 billion to help states and hospitals plan and prepare for the vaccination campaign.

Congress appropriated $7.65 billion in June for H1N1 and other pandemic influenza preparedness.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

HOW IS THE VACCINE BEING DISTRIBUTED?

Vaccine production is expected to reach 40 million doses by mid- to late-October and continue to rise at a rate of about 20 million per week through December. The U.S. government has ordered 250 million doses and says this should be enough to ensure coverage for every American who wants it.

The CDC is working with healthcare services firm McKesson Corp. to distribute doses to 90,000 vaccination sites designated by state and local health departments. The sites include clinics, doctor’s offices, hospitals, schools and retail chains where vaccine will be available.

The government says its centralized distribution system can reach more sites than the direct manufacturer distribution used for seasonal flu vaccine.

The United States hopes to vaccinate 160 million Americans considered at highest risk of death or severe disease by the beginning of December. These include pregnant women, people with asthma, diabetes or heart disease, and children and young adults.

The United States has also offered 10 percent of its vaccine supply, or about 25 million doses, to help the World Health Organization distribute vaccine to less developed countries.

WHEN DID VACCINE BEGIN MOVING TO DISTRIBUTION SITES?

The vaccine has taken less than a week to arrive at designated sites after orders are placed.

On Tuesday, health officials said the 50 U.S. states had ordered 2.2 million vaccine doses, or more than 90 percent of the 2.4 million doses currently available. Limited vaccination started on Monday.

U.S. health officials and other experts say some states may not have finalized their immunization programs while others are limited by constraints on budgets or storage capacity. State and local health departments also are still administering seasonal flu vaccinations, which became available earlier than usual this year.

The Health and Human Services Department expects orders to increase as vaccine becomes available in the more widely used injectable form.

H1N1 flu vaccination – U.S. program gets under way is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

But Loyola will not mandate immunization against swine flu, since that vaccine is in short supply.

Sixty percent of Loyola’s employees got their flu shots in 2007, better than the national average. The hospital and its clinics are believed to be the first in the state to mandate flu shots for employees.

It’s a controversial move, since some health-care workers consider it a violation of their rights to be forced to get the vaccine.

Monifa Thomas

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The swine flu is spreading at a rapid pace and raising concerns all over the society is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Swine Flu, you can have the best doctors in the world taking care of you, but the name of the game is Flu Prevention is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

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With another surge in cases of the H1N1 virus — initially known as “swine flu” — expected as soon as September, medical experts say the battle to tame the first pandemic flu in four decades is just getting under way in Europe.

European Union health officials stress that most human cases of the flu have been mild and that patients recovered without special treatment. In another sign of normalcy, a committee of E.U. health officials recommended last week that schools reopen as usual after the summer break.

But with limited amounts of jobs.pharmacy-bg.com/tag/vaccine/”title=”vaccine” >vaccines expected to become available this year, health authorities are girding for many more cases over the autumn and winter flu season, when viruses spread more easily.

“If we get a lot more infections, then there will be a lot more complications in people’s medical conditions and that means a lot more deaths,” said Nigel Dimmock, an emeritus professor in the department of biological sciences at the University of Warwick in England, and a flu expert.

Through Sunday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, an E.U. agency based in Sweden, had recorded 38,187 confirmed cases and 60 deaths in European countries, compared with a global total of 228,921 confirmed cases and 2,084 deaths worldwide.

Those statistics show that Europe has suffered a relatively small number of cases. According to the World Health Organization, countries in North and South America have reported the vast majority of infections and deaths. But this is exactly the time, experts believe, that Europeans should be girding for a more widespread outbreak.

The global pattern of the virus’s spread indicated that “the pandemic is just beginning” in Europe, said Nikki Shindo, a spokeswoman on influenza for the W.H.O.

Up to 30 percent of the British population could become infected during the coming flu season, according to a spokeswoman for Britain’s Department of Health, who spoke with customary anonymity. During an ordinary flu season, between 2 percent and 15 percent of the population is affected, she said.

Britain had 12,903 confirmed cases and 44 deaths recorded through Sunday — the most of any European country, according to the E.C.D.C. Late last week, 39 people with suspected swine flu were in critical care wards in England.

This month, tests confirmed the symptoms of the H1N1 virus, none serious, on 59 students and five staff members at a language center for foreign students in France, near Monaco. The school confirmed there had been cases of swine flu detected but declined to make any further comment.

Others language schools in France have been taking precautions. Accent Français in Montpellier, which has around 150 students 16 or older — from countries including Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Britain and the United States — has stockpiled masks and put up notices on hygiene and medical contact numbers.

Through Sunday, there had been 1,125 cases and one death, recorded in France, according to the E.C.D.C.

“The virus does not appear to be overly aggressive now,” said Odile Launay, director of the Cochin-Pasteur Vaccinology Center in Paris, “but it could become so.”

She said researchers and experts had been surprised at the continuing appearance of new cases during the summer, when flu viruses generally remained less visible.

According to the E.C.D.C., Spain has recorded 11 deaths, the second highest number in the E.U., but has recorded 1,538 cases, far fewer than in Britain; Germany has recorded 11,493 confirmed cases, according to the E.C.D.C., but no deaths. The Robert Koch Institute, a German body responsible for disease control and prevention, said recently that the number of cases had been steadily increasing, with more originating indigenously than from citizens returning from trips abroad.

The W.H.O. said that about one-third of the world’s population would probably be affected by the time the pandemic had settled into a pattern and could be considered a seasonal flu virus — within about two to three years.

Ordinarily the process of developing new influenza vaccines is lengthy, so regulatory authorities in Europe have applied fast-track procedures to make them available as quickly as possible.

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