Health officials begin dispersing limited supply of Flu Mist to health care workers

Tooele County Health Department director Myron Bateman said his office has been inundated with calls from people wanting information about getting vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus.

“It’s one call after another,” Bateman said. “It’s so busy that we hired six additional people to help handle the calls.”

Most of callers’ questions, he said, are in regards to when they can get the vaccine. Many of the callers have been elderly.

Bateman said according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who are age 65 and older are the least likely to get sick with the H1N1 virus, so they aren’t recommended to get the first doses of the vaccine.

The health department received its first shipment of 600 doses of H1N1 vaccine Monday. The doses are in a nasal spray form called Flu Mist. There is currently no specific timetable as to when injectable shots are scheduled to arrive, according to Bucky Whitehouse, public information officer for the Tooele County Health Department.

“We have been creating a plan on how to efficiently administer this vaccine for the past few months,” said Bateman.

Health department officials have decided on a priority list for distributing the voluntary vaccine. First on the list are pregnant women. However this group can’t take the nasal spray, which is not deemed medically appropriate for pregnant women, and will have to wait until the injectable form becomes available.

The next priority group includes health care workers and emergency medical personnel. Vaccinations on this group began this morning at clinics at the health department.

Mountain West Medical Center has received 200 of the 600 doses to vaccinate hospital employees. Health care providers who aren’t affiliated with the hospital are coming to the health department to receive the vaccinations, according to Whitehouse.

Flu Mist is recommended for healthy people from ages 2 to 49. Sherrie Ahlstrom, nursing director at the health department, said when the manufacturers went through the process to get the vaccine licensed with the FDA, it was not studied for people over 49 years of age, and for under age 2 they found factors that increased risks associated with using it.

Once more vaccinations, both Flu Mist and the shot, become available, they will be provided to the next priority groups, which are households with children 6 months or younger, children aged 6 months to 24 years, and those under the age of 64 with chronic medical conditions, respectively.

Once those in the priority groups have been vaccinated, the vaccine will be provided to people between the ages of 25 and 64, and then others. There is no charge for the vaccine.

“We will be getting vaccine shipments every week, we just don’t know what we’ll be getting or how much so the priorities will change depending on how much vaccine and what types we get,” Ahlstrom said. “We will let you know through the newspaper and the [county health department] Web site.”

She added there are five manufacturers trying to make the vaccine and it takes time to grow the vaccine and go through the proper processes.

“They’re all in various stages of getting through that formal process of testing and getting approval. Flu Mist is easier to grow,” she said, adding that why it’s more available and available first.

The two major partners the health department is working with in making plans of how to reach the targeted groups are MWMC and the Tooele County School District.

“When we reach the point in time that we have an adequate amount of vaccine for school-aged children — they fall in the fourth tier — then we will actually start taking the vaccine into the schools in a mass clinic scenario where all school-aged students will have the opportunity to have it if their parents choose to do so,” Whitehouse said.

Bateman added the school district will send out permission slips for the students to receive the vaccine.

Ahlstrom said only patients who are hospitalized are being tested for H1N1, per policy set by the Utah Department of Health for cases in Utah. She urges proper etiquette to slow the spread of H1N1.

“The No. 1 message is to use good hand washing and coughing etiquette,” Ahlstrom said. “And stay home if you’re sick.”

People can return to work or school after 24 hours of not having a fever without the help of medication. For health care workers, that time period is extended to seven days, which is one of the reasons why, according to Bateman, the Flu Mist vaccinations are being used on that group first.

Whitehouse said regardless of what type of influenza it is — H1N1 or seasonal — the treatment — staying home, getting rest and antiviral medication — is the same.

People are encouraged to get seasonal flu shots as well, although the health department is currently out of the seasonal flu vaccine. They expect to get more, so check the health department’s Web site for more information. The seasonal flu vaccine is also available from other sources locally.

People can check the health department’s Web site at www.tooelehealth.org and in the Transcript-Bulletin for information and updates.

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com