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Many residents still waiting for H1N1 vaccine
Despite Barack Obama's declaration of a national emergency over the weekend to deal with the H1N1 flu pandemic, most citizens across the country and in Loudoun who want to be vaccinated are still waiting.
Many doctors' offices around the county have requested the vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but few have received it.
“We're one of the practices in the area that's supposed to receive it,” said nurse Annie Linsangan at Loudoun Pediatric Associates in Lansdowne. “They won't give us the exact date, but it should be any time now.”
Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department, said about 8,500 Loudoun residents have received the H1N1 vaccine provided by the health department. About 7,000 of those were public school students vaccinated at schools before the schools' supply ran out last week. The Health Department gave its last 250 doses of the vaccine given Oct. 26, but Goodfriend said he hopes more will be delivered by the end of the week.
“We don't have enough to vaccinate everyone we'd like to right now," he said. "The best thing we can do is get it out to as many people in high-risk groups as possible.”
Leesburg-Sterling Family Practice, which has its main office in Lansdowne, is one of the few places in the county that has the vaccine available.
Brenda Wilkes, the office administrator, said they received 900 doses of the H1N1 vaccine – far fewer than ordered – to be split between three office locations in Lansdowne, Leesburg and Purcellville.
As soon as a notice went up on the practice's Web site announcing the vaccine, calls began coming in.
“We have been getting bombarded with calls since we put that up,” she said. “A lot of them are from other doctors' offices trying to see if they can get the vaccine for their workers.”
Only existing patients who are at high risk of contracting the virus or of suffering complications – such as pregnant women, children, young adults up to age 24, and those with chronic illnesses such as asthma -- are being inoculated at Leesburg-Sterling at this time, she said.
Times-Mirror employee Kerry Stavely, who goes to Leesburg-Sterling's Leesburg office and has asthma, was able to get the shot Oct. 22.
“Afterward I felt tired and my arm hurt a lot,” she said. “I got some chills, but now I feel fine.”
The doctors and nurses at that practice and many others are taking extra precautions to prevent the spread of the illness, including disinfecting more than usual, providing hand sanitizer and wearing surgical masks.
While dozens of doctor's offices anxiously await their first doses of H1N1 vaccine, Dr. Sarah Susan Fletcher of Sterling Family Practice said she's not recommending the vaccine to anyone, even high-risk patients like pregnant women.
“We're not talking about a disease where people are dying in hoards,” she said. “I refuse to have it in my practice. It's a mild illness. It doesn't warrant the vaccine. This thing has been pushed way out of proportion.”
The flu is widespread in 46 states including Virginia.
Right now in Loudoun County, public schools are running an average absence rate of about 91 percent, said Wayde Byard, spokesman for the school system. The normal rate is about 95 percent. The rate at some schools has dropped into the 80s, he said.
The school system plans to resume its vaccination program as soon as it receives more vaccine.
About 30 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be available by the end of the month, according to the CDC.
“We don't know how much we can get,” Goodfriend said. “It's getting out as quickly as it comes in to the CDC.”
For more information about H1N1, visit www.cdc.gov.
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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