Swine flu shots available in some Sullivan schools beginning Monday

Less than a fourth of Sullivan County’s elementary and middle school students are expected to be vaccinated for the swine flu during a series of school-based clinics starting Monday.

So far, about 1,900 students have returned permission slips to participate in the clinics, which represents about 24 percent of the county’s elementary and middle school student population.

Alisa Hearl, the school health services coordinator for the Sullivan County Regional Health Department, said she expects more forms to arrive as the week progresses.

“We plan to vaccinate as many kids as we can,” she said.

But the low participation rate, backed by similar numbers at vaccination clinics already held at two other public school systems, are worrying some health officials. Their concerns are based in the novel H1N1 virus’s track record, which puts elementary and middle school students at higher risk for contracting the flu and suffering complications.

“Vaccination is the best way to protect your children,” Virginia Department of Health spokeswoman Melodie Martin said. “The overall public health goal is to protect as much of the population that we can.”

Martin also said she is somewhat surprised that folks aren’t banging down the doors to get the vaccine for their children.

During clinics in October, Bristol, Va., saw 40 percent of its students get shots Oct. 30, while 30 percent of Washington County’s students got the shots the week of Oct. 21.

Over the coming week, Sullivan County health officials will offer the swine flu vaccines – via flu mist sprays or injections – free to students at the county’s 24 public elementary and middle schools.
Students are required to bring that signed permission slip, Hearl said. Copies of the forms are available on the school system’s Web site at http://www.sullivanK12.net and can be turned in the morning each clinic starts.

The Bristol, Tenn., public school system will hold its vaccination clinics in early to mid-December, spokesman Todd Bailey said. School officials will be sending permission slips home Monday and would like them back by Nov. 20 so they can determine how much vaccine to order. Delivery and clinic organization takes about three weeks after the order has been placed, Bailey said.

The Virginia health department has vaccinated nearly a quarter-million people for the swine flu at more than 300 clinics held across the state over the past few weeks, department officials said. That figure includes 115,715 students, teachers and school employees who were vaccinated at school-based clinics across the state, including the ones Bristol and Washington County.

Yet it’s only a fraction of the 4.7 million people the state health department can vaccinate once its full shipment of swine flu vaccines arrives. The supply is enough to vaccinate about 60 percent of the state’s total population, Martin said.

Tennessee’s swine flu vaccination program has seen slightly better results, said Tim Jones, the Tennessee Department of Health’s state epidemiologist.

“We really hope a large percentage of the population gets vaccinated,” Jones said. So far the Volunteer State has distributed 800,000 doses of swine flu vaccine to its 6 million residents, he said.

The vaccine has been so popular, Jones said, that it spends little if any time on health department shelves and has been “getting into people’s arms as soon as it gets to the clinics.”

Still, Jones said, from a public health perspective he’d like to see a much higher percentage of the residents vaccinated.

Martin offered a couple reasons the local school-based swine flu clinics might not be as popular among parents as the health department would like. Parents might not understand the risk the swine flu poses, she said, or believe that the vaccinations are safe for children to use. She said the health department is working to combat both “misconceptions” as part of its vaccination campaign.

Hearl offered another reason why so few students might be taking advantage of the free school-based clinics: The kids might have been vaccinated somewhere else, such as a private pediatrician’s office, because their parents didn’t want to wait for the school clinics.

Jones said the sheer number of private sources for swine flu vaccine makes it hard to determine how many children have been vaccinated. That’s why, he said, he’s not too concerned that participation at school-based clinics seems low.

| (276) 645-2518