H1N1 Swine Flu Vacines in Douglas County

Swine flu continues to spread in Oregon, according to state and local officials. Four new clinics will be held this week and next to help vaccinate people most at risk of getting the illness officially known as the H1N1 flu.Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 30, there were 698 hospitalizations and 18 deaths in Oregon attributed to influenza, according to a Douglas County Health and Social Services news release.

Of those, 14 hospitalizations were in Douglas County, and one man, a county resident older than 65, died elsewhere.

Almost all the hospitalizations and deaths are from the swine flu, although some have been due to another strain of flu.Due to the limited number of local deaths and concerns for privacy, the Douglas County Public Health Department will not be releasing further information on the county resident who died, Public Health promotion manager Marilyn Carter said this morning.As of Thursday, 4,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine had arrived in the county to date.

Douglas County Public Health expects another 4,100 doses to arrive in the first week of November. Those doses will be made available to registered H1N1 vaccine providers and to priority groups at the four upcoming clinics.

The state Department of Human Services has asked county health departments to use at least 30 percent of their vaccine allocations to provide clinics for people in priority groups who are not served by an enrolled H1N1 vaccine provider or who are uninsured.The priority groups are: everyone aged six months to 24 years old; pregnant women; people caring for, or living with, infants who are younger than six months of age; people from the ages of 25 to 64 who have health conditions that may put them at risk for complications from influenza — such as asthma, immune deficiencies, lung or heart disease and diabetes; health care workers and emergency medical service providers; law enforcement officers and firefighters who have frequent physical contact with the public as a part of their usual work; correction personnel in state prisons, local jails and juvenile correctional facilities who come into contact with adult or juvenile offenders; and public safety emergency telecommunications workers, including 911 call-takers and dispatchers.

The state Department of Human Services also encourages those without insurance or with no regular health care provider to call the Oregon Flu Hotline, toll free at 1-800-978-3040, Carter said.Callers can reach a “real person,” Carter said. “They can ask about the vaccine. They can ask about symptoms.”Health information specialists answer the line from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.According to the Centers for Disease Control, people should only go to an emergency room if they are very sick and have the emergency warning signs of flu sickness.Dawnelle Marshall, division director of Douglas County Public Health, said emergency warning signs may vary with the age of the patient.

In young children especially, parents may notice their children having difficulty breathing, to the point at which they are using muscles in their shoulder, chest and diaphragm to breathe, she said.Emergency warning signs in adults include shortness of breath, Marshall said. People may experience their chest feeling heavy, and they may have a hard time catching their breath even without strenuous activity, she said.

In adults older than 65, emergency warning signs may include disorientation due to a fever or dehydration.Severe dehydration from any cause can be another emergency warning sign, Marshall said.For more information, visit the following — Oregon Flu Web site, http://www.flu.oregon.gov/ or the Health Department Web site, www.co.douglas.or.us/health — or call the Health Department Flu Info Line at 464-3815.

Update on Flu vacines in parts of Portland Metro area

Vaccine:
The H1N1 vaccine remains in short supply nationwide due to delays by manufacturers producing the vaccine.

In the Portland area, the delays mean some public clinics have been canceled. Other clinics are offering only a limited number of doses. The small amounts currently available are being targeted toward children under five years of age and pregnant women, who are six times more likely to die from H1N1. Some counties are also reaching out to school children.

The production delay has led CDC officials to revise downward their vaccine delivery targets by 25 percent through the end of October. CDC officials say the revision reflects the unpredictability of the manufacturing process, which involved growing the virus in chicken eggs. Two manufacturers achieved smaller yields from this process than they had projected.

Health officials continue to expect that shipments will ramp up and availability of the vaccine will increase.

Shipments arriving in the Portland metro area this week will be about the same size as last week’s batch. Here is the rough breakdown of what is expected here:

County Doses
Clackamas 3,100
Multnomah 6,000
Washington 4,500

Earlier this month marked the first time that some clinics received injectable vaccine, which contains a H1N1 virus that has been “inactivated” or killed.

Until now, the only form of vaccine available was the FluMist nasal spray. Because FluMist contains a live flu virus, it is only appropriate for healthy people age 2 to 49. Pregnant women and children under age 2 need the injectable vaccine, which contains virus that has been “inactivated” or killed.

Outbreaks
From Sept. 1 throught Oct. 21 , a total of 449 people in Oregon were hospitalized and 15 died from Influenza A virus. Not all of these patients were tested for H1N1, but nationally nearly all samples that have been laboratory sub-typed in recent weeks were H1N1.

All Influenza A cases, Sept. 1 through Oct. 21
County Hospitalizations Deaths
Clackamas 46 0
Clark and Region IV 15 0
Columbia 0 0
Multnomah 62 1
Washington 54 0

Schools throughout the region report seeing an increase of absences due to influenza-like illness.

Response
Oregon has now adopted a temporary rule allowing some emergency medical technicians and paramedics to administer flue vaccine to the general public. Before, EMTs could only vaccinate other EMTs. Clark County, Wash., adopted similar rules.

State and county epidemiologists are monitoring school absences and reports of hospitalizations to track the spread of the virus.

Public information officers regionally are pooling information and coordinating availability of key spokesperons in response to requests from news organizations.

Regional Flu Update

We received this update yesterday:

Regional Public Information Officers,

Please visit the Regional Public Health Flu Web site for the latest update
at:

nwflunews.info

Also, please note that the State of Oregon conducted a news conference and
issued a news release this morning to set the stage for the arrival of
vaccine over the next several weeks. That news release can be found at:

http://www.flu.oregon.gov/DHS/news/2009news/2009-0930.pdf

Thank you.

Philip Bransford

(503) 988-6104