Seasonal flu clinic deemed a success

Suzanne Laurent

Oct. 21, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- DERRY -- The free seasonal flu clinic held last Saturday at West Running Brook Middle School was a success on many levels. Organized by the Greater Derry public health regional department and local emergency response personnel, the clinic was one of seven regional clinics set up in the state to test readiness for administering large quantities of vaccine in a single location.

Over 120 emergency response personnel, health care workers and volunteers participated in the Derry clinic to distribute close to 600 seasonal flu vaccines.

One of the lessons learned during the first hour was that people shied away from receiving the vaccine in the nasal spray form, called FluMist, that can be an option for healthy persons aged 2 to 49. The free clinic was only open to children 9 and over, however.

"That was surprising for me," said Garrett Simonsen, the public health network coordinator for the Town of Derry.

"We had a lot of people show up during that first hour and only 25 doses of FluMist were administered."

Simonsen said health care personnel on the federal, state and regional levels need to coordinate efforts to educate the public on the option and benefits of the nasal spray vaccine.

Towards the end of the clinic, the nasal spray became the predominant option for people as the flu shot supply diminished.

"We still had about 150 doses of the shots and plenty of FluMist available going into the third hour," Simonsen said.

"The Derry emergency management personnel saw this as a good opportunity to exercise its Code Red notification system."

Code Red is a service residents can sign up for to receive messages via phone, text message, e-mail or Twitter in the event of an emergency.

Those signed up for Code Red learned that there was still plenty of flu vaccine available and the clinic went a half-hour past its planned three hours to provide vaccines.

"An overwhelming number of people were Derry residents," Simonsen said.

"We don't have the exact number of kids versus adults."

One reason for the high turnout may be that there is a temporary shortage of seasonal flu vaccine at providers due to the large amount of people who got their shots early this year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Of the 140 million doses available in the United States market, 82 million doses have been distributed, as of Oct. 9. The manufacturers of seasonal flu vaccine had stopped making the vaccine temporarily to begin production of the H1N1 vaccine. Since the flu season peaks in January and February, people should not panic, Simonsen added.

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