30,000 doses available for local swine flu clinics

Published 3:42 pm Friday, October 29, 2010

Snohomish County hit the swine flu vaccine jackpot Friday, with a morning shipment allowing about 30,000 doses to be available for today’s swine flu immunization clinics.

Even as health officials finished last-minute details for the clinics Friday morning, they didn’t know how much — if any — additional vaccine would arrive.

“We were crossing our fingers and literally praying,” said Preston Simmons, chief operating officer at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.

If Friday’s shipment hadn’t arrived, the clinics would have gone on as planned with about 19,000 doses, he said. But planners worried that they would run out before the day’s end.

Local medical groups, who worked for months on organizing flu shot clinics to get the public vaccinated, were thrilled when they heard enough doses arrived Friday morning to vaccinate up to 30,000 people, he said.

“The more we can get out to the community the better,” Simmons said.

The vaccines will be offered today at special one-day clinics, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., in Stanwood, Edmonds, Monroe, Everett, Snohomish, Arlington, Marysville, Tulalip and Mill Creek.

The county’s Web site, snocoflu.com, will provide regular updates on where the lines are longest — and shortest.

The vaccine is free, but limited to the following groups: pregnant women; teachers and child-care providers; anyone from 6 months through 24 years of age; household and caregiver contacts of children younger than 6 months of age, such as parents, siblings and day-care providers; people 25 to 64 years old who have medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma and heart problems that put them at higher risk of complications from influenza; and health care and emergency response workers.

Included in Friday’s shipment were some limited supplies of preservative-free vaccine for pregnant women, which will be available at Saturday’s vaccine clinics, Simmons said.

Swine flu is causing far higher than normal absentee rates in area schools and physician offices continue to be swamped with sickened patients — months before the traditional onset of flu season.

On Friday, 18 patients were hospitalized at Providence Regional Medical Center for influenza symptoms, including one child. Three of the patients were being treated in the hospital’s critical care unit, and two were on ventilators, said Cheri Russum, a Providence spokeswoman.

Friday’s news on additional vaccine shipments in Snohomish County came on the same day that federal health officials said swine flu continues to sicken and kill a far younger population than what occurs during a typical seasonal flu.

More people under age 65 have been hospitalized with swine flu in the past two months than in most entire flu seasons, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the past week, 19 children died from swine flu, bringing the total number of deaths of kids this year to 114, he said.

Two-thirds of those deaths occurred in children with prior health problems, such as asthma, that put them of higher risk of being seriously ill.

Yet health officials have spotted a troubling trend among children and adults with common underlying health conditions, which in addition to asthma include heart and lung disease, he said.

Only about half of them received medical care for the fever and cough that can cause them to become more seriously ill from swine flu.

With swine flu hitting children hard, Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, medical director of walk-in clinics at The Everett Clinic, urged parents to take Saturday’s opportunity to get their kids vaccinated.

“The amount of infection in this community right now is astronomical,” Tu said. “It’s really sad to see all these young children with pneumonia, difficulty breathing and severe illness.”

Such problems can be prevented by getting the vaccine, he said. “The vaccine is safe,” Tu said. “The risk of getting infected is very, very real — it’s not a theoretical risk.”

Today’s flu shot clinics provide the opportunity for tens of thousand of people to be vaccinated, he said. Regular reports from today’s vaccine clinics will allow supplies to be moved from site to site as needed.

“It’s unlikely we’ll run out,” Tu said. “Now it’s the question: Can we get people to show up?”

Reporter Sharon Salyer 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.