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Eleonor Mejia, 8, and other students received H1N1 vaccinations at Lafayette Upper Elementary. MIKE MORONES/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

H1N1 vaccine: Use it or lose it

Health director says he will ship the H1N1 vaccine to those who are ready to use it

Date published: 11/6/2009

BY JIM HALL

Wednesday's distribution of the H1N1 vaccine may offer a preview of what future distributions will look like.

If so, schools and parents will have to be nimble, or they may miss the early shipments.

More than 3,000 doses of the vaccine arrived at the Rappahannock Area Health District office at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Within hours, Dr. John Petrasky, health district director, had shipped the swine flu vaccine to four school programs, who offered it to their students that evening or yesterday morning.

School officials who promised a quick turnaround received quantities of the vaccine. One school system that he wouldn't name said it needed time to stage a clinic and did not get any.

"Everybody knows the rules here. Whoever is ready to do it is going to get it," Petrasky said.

He said he got both the injectable and nasal-mist versions of the vaccine in the Wednesday shipment and began calling his contacts in the local schools and checking their published schedules.

Spotsylvania County, for example, had a clinic scheduled Wednesday night at Massaponax High, where it planned to give away the leftover vaccine from a Tuesday night clinic at Riverbend High. He shipped them an additional 1,000 doses.

In Stafford County, Kathy Whitby, nurse manager, told David Sawyer, superintendent, that Petrasky was ready to ship 1,000 doses if they could host a clinic that night.

"Can you do it? Sawyer asked her.

"Yes," Whitby replied.

So school officials started sending out e-mails, making phone calls and arranging for the use of Mountain View High.

The Stafford Sheriff's Office and Stafford Fire and Rescue said they could help. Local media were notified and got the word out. Parents were alerted by robo calls and through the schools' Web site. And principals made announcements at the end of the school day.

"It was successful. We managed to get another thousand vaccines out there," said Valerie Cottongim, spokeswoman.

Petrasky said he offered vaccine to one school system that had tentatively scheduled a clinic for Wednesday evening. But officials told him that they needed time to make final arrangements. He declined to ship them vaccine.

"The whole goal is to get this into kids ASAP," Petrasky said.

He said he's pleased with the schools' ability to mobilize quickly.

"They need to be given a tremendous amount of credit," he said. "This is very impressive."

Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com

For each of the last two Octobers, the student health center at the University of Mary Washington treated about 600 students. This October, the clinic staff saw 841 students. "That extra surge is probably all flu-type illness," said Dr. Thomas Riley, the center's director. Yesterday was the first day in weeks that the waiting room at the student health center was not full. Since the beginning of the semester, and especially since Oct. 20, the clinic has seen plenty of students suffering from fever, chills, sweats, "significant body aches and significant fatigue," Riley said. The clinic no longer uses a nasal swab to test for the H1N1 virus. It assumes that most of these students have it, Riley said. The university has not received any H1N1 vaccine, and Riley said he does not know when it will get any. He said he will recommend that students get the shots as soon as a shipment arrives from the state Health Department. --Jim Hall

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Date published: 11/6/2009

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