Cherokee Nation issues first H1N1 vaccines to students
Fri, Oct 16, 2009
8:20:45 AM CDT
By Jami Custer
Staff Writer
http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/20783/Article.aspx
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The first doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine designated for the Cherokee Nation were given on Oct. 15 to residential students at the tribe’s Jack Brown Center, Talking Leaves Job Corps and Sequoyah Schools.
CN Medical Director Dr. Gloria Grim said the CN received a small number of the H1N1 intranasal vaccines from the Cherokee County Health Department. She said the three facilities were identified as an initial site based on the age of the students and because they house students. Those factors place the Jack Brown Center, TJLC and Sequoyah in a high-risk category based on Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
Students were required to sign waivers and answer questions regarding their health prior to receiving the vaccine.
“All participants at TLJC have a consent on file that allows them to be treated for acute and chronic illnesses and receive routine vaccinations,” Grim said. “However, all students will receive information on the vaccination and may decline if they choose.”
Grim said any student over 20 years of age who did not want the nasal vaccine will be the first to receive the H1N1 shot when it arrives, which was expected to be around Oct. 22.
“We currently have enough of the H1N1 intranasal vaccine to administer to all participants under the age of 20 who have no contraindications to taking the H1N1 intranasal vaccine,” Grim said.
The intranasal vaccine contains a weakened live virus that is squirted up the nose in a mist form. The shot form of the vaccine contains a dead virus that is injected into the arm.
“Being able to provide that vaccine to dorm students who are highly at risk because of residential living is essential to prevent them from getting the flu and spreading it…we’re following CDC guidelines,” Ginger Glory, TLJC Quality Improvement director, said.
Choctaw Nation citizen and TLJC student Jared Chandler is taking business classes at the facility. He said he decided to get the H1N1 vaccine because a 15-year-old girl near his hometown died from the H1N1 flu virus. “I want to be on the safe side,” he said.
Grim said the CN would continue to issue the vaccine as it becomes available.
“If the next shipment contains both nasal and inject able, we will finish vaccinating the students at the residential facilities and the teachers at those facilities,” she said. “Then we will start with pregnant women, high-risk children and health care providers.”
Grim said it is imperative that all eligible people take the H1N1 vaccine as it becomes available and to remember that the seasonal vaccine does not protect against H1N1.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, about 200 people in the state had been hospitalized and eight people had died from the H1N1 virus as of Oct. 15.
Reach Staff Writer Jami Custer at (918) 453-5560 or jami-custer@cherokee.org
FL:
Second swine flu death hits St. Johns
By CHAD SMITH chad.smith@staugustine.com
Posted: Friday, October 16, 2009 ; Updated: 12:23 AM on Friday, October 16, 2009
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/101609/news_2089187.shtml
A second St. Johns County resident has died from the swine flu, the county Health Department reported Thursday.
The victim, an unidentified 45-year-old man, died Tuesday and had an underlying health condition, the department reported.
The cause of death was confirmed through laboratory testing as H1N1, commonly known as the swine flu, the department said in a news release.
No other information about the victim was available.
The hospital this week adopted a new policy limiting patient visitors to immediate family members who are at least 15 years old in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.
Gina McLean, a hospital spokeswoman, said Thursday that the change has been “very smooth.”
“The community is obviously just as concerned as we are about the preventing the spread of the flu,” McLean said, adding that there has not been any resistance.
The Health Department received about 100 vaccines for the flu earlier this month and has been giving them to those in the health care and emergency response fields, who are more vulnerable to the virus, department spokeswoman Noreen Nickola-Williams said.
The county will be receiving more vaccines to administer, but she did not know when.
The first swine flu victim in the county, a 54-year-old man, died in late September and did not have an underlying health condition, according to local officials.