Anchorage cancels swine flu shot clinic

Rosemary Shinohara

Nov. 6, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The city, still short of swine flu vaccine, is cancelling a planned mass swine flu vaccination clinic next Saturday at UAA.

Instead it will make more vaccine available next week to private providers, Anchorage Neighborhood Health Clinic, and pharmacies in town, a spokeswoman for the municipal Health and Social Services Department said Friday.

And the city is planning multiple clinics at UAA, a mall, middle schools in different parts of town, and the Downtown Transit Center from Nov. 21 to Jan. 12. The clinics may be limited to people in at least one of five priority groups established by the federal Centers for Disease Control, depending on how much vaccine is available.

The priority groups are pregnant women, young people from 6 months old to age 24, people living with babies under six months, health care workers and adults aged 25 to 64 with chronic health problems.

The city commissioned a telephone survey of 700-plus Anchorage residents to help guide its plans for vaccine distribution, and learned that demand for the vaccine is high among the priority groups, but others are not so eager to get an extra shot or nasal mist vaccine.

Nearly 1 percent of the people surveyed said they weren't going to be vaccinated because they already got the swine flu. That would translate to about 2,700 people, said Marc Hellenthal of Hellenthal and Associates, which conducted the survey Oct. 20 to 27.

Only 31 percent of Anchorage residents not in a priority group said they want the vaccine, said city health officials.

But three-fourths of families with young people want them to get vaccinated, and half or more of the people in the other priority groups plan to get the vaccine, according to survey results. The survey has a margin of error of about four percentage points.

Some local residents in priority groups are finding it hard to locate the vaccine.

Shannon Uffenbeck, who is pregnant and has asthma -- hitting two priority groups -- said she spent 10 hours trying to track down a preservative-free version of the vaccine, the kind that is being sent to some obstetrician and gynecologist offices, but not all of them.

She stood in line at Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, which offers swine flu vaccines daily from 8 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m., but found it did not have the preservative-free version at the time she was there. She tried the city health department and some pharmacies. Finally, she found what she needed at a Mat-Su urgent-care clinic, and drove to the Valley to get it.

John Farleigh said his common-law wife is a veteran and has had lymphoma, but has not been able to locate the vaccine at the VA or her cancer doctor's office.

The vaccine is most regularly available at Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center. Anchorage public schools plan to continue their vaccinations of students next week at 25 schools, most of them elementary schools.

This week, about 47 percent of students at 17 elementary schools were vaccinated.

Find Rosemary Shinohara online at adn.com/contact/rshinohara or call 257-4340.

Clinics scheduled by the city, contingent on vaccine supply, are: Nov. 21, 10 a.m. -- 4 p.m., UAA Student Union. Nov. 24, 3-5 p.m. -- Downtown Transit Center. Dec. 1, 5-9 p.m. -- Central Middle School. Dec. 3, 1-7 p.m. -- Northway Mall. Dec. 5, 10 a.m. -- 4 p.m., UAA Cuddy Center. Dec. 8, 5-9 p.m. -- Clark Middle School. Dec. 12, 10 a.m. -- 4 p.m., UAA Cuddy Center. Dec. 15, 5-9 p.m. -- Gruening Middle School. Dec. 19, 10 a.m. -- 4 p.m., UAA Cuddy Center. Dec. 22, 5-9 p.m. -- Wendler Middle School. Dec. 29, 5-9 p.m. -- Romig Middle School. Jan. 5, 5-9 p.m. -- Hanshew Middle School. Jan. 12, 5-9 p.m. -- Mears Middle School.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0009-39521026