Who Should Get The H1N1 Vaccine?Young Children To Get Shots First As First Doses Arrive In PittsburghPOSTED: 11:59 am EDT October 7,
2009 PITTSBURGH -- What is H1N1? When will a vaccine be available in your area? Should you get it?All this week Channel Four Action News has been reporting on ways to help you and your family learn more about the H1N1 flu.Tonight, on Channel Four Action News starting at 5 p.m., the station will have a phone bank of health experts in our studio to answer your specific questions.
Stay tuned to this page and Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m for details on how to call in. The Allegheny County Health Department in Pittsburgh has received 1,000 doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine to help those who cannot get it from their own health care providers or schools.Video:  Watch Michelle Wright's Report Spokesman Guillermo Cole says the nasal spray doses arrived late Tuesday.He said they're being held back for "unmet needs" -- that is, people who can't get the vaccine anywhere else.The initial doses are intended for 5- to 9-year-olds, whom the Pennsylvania Department of Health has made the first priority group to receive the vaccines."They're going to need two doses to get a good immunologic response separated by 21 to 28 days. So, if we give them the first dose now, we can give them the second dose about a month from now," said Dr. Bruce Dixon of the Allegheny County Health Department.The vaccines are provided by the federal government and will be free to those who need to get them at the county Health Department. Cole says providers aren't allowed to charge for the vaccines, but may charge for the costs of distributing it.Eventually, anyone will be able to get the vaccine from their primary care doctor or a clinic at the local pharmacy.However, there are different types of H1N1 vaccine, and patients need to know which one to get."I can't afford to be sick for more than an hour in my house. When mom is down, everybody is down," Chelsey Speed told Channel 4 Action News' Michelle Wright.Speed is planning to welcome her new baby boy to the world in January, which is why she's planning on getting the H1N1 vaccination as soon as possible so she can stay healthy during her pregnancy.The swine flu makes pregnant women sicker than others.The Centers for Disease Control said as of late August, 100 pregnant women in the US who contracted H1N1 required intensive care hospitalization and 28 died."We don't think it's dangerous for the baby while the baby's inside. We do know that if mom is sick, that's never good for the baby. So we'd like to prevent mom from getting sick the best we can," said Dr. Richard Beigi of Magee Womens Hospital.After children and pregnant women, the most at-risk groups include health care workers and students in school.Adults with underlying health concerns such as heart and lung problems are also at risk.But different groups will get different kinds of vaccines.Arriving first is the live attenuated vaccine, a nasal spray that includes a small, weakened amount of the actual virus.Pregnant women and health care workers should not get this vaccine.They will have to wait for the second batch, which doesn't have the live virus, delivered as a shot in the arm.Doctors said both of these vaccines are equally effective.Some doses of the vaccine, aimed at children, will be free of the controversial preservative thimerosal, which some people said causes autism.The CDC said there is no evidence thimerosal causes autism, but there will be doses of the H1N1 vaccine that will not contain thimerosal to avoid controversy.And local health officials said there will eventually be plenty of doses of the vaccine to go around."There's going to be loads of doses. There's going to be more doses in this country than we're ever going to use," Dixon said.Speed said she wants to get her vaccination as soon as the killed vaccine doses are available."I want to be able to be there to support them 100 percent of the time and not get sick and be admitted to one of the facilities here and be isolated," Speed said.Babies under 6 months old cannot get the vaccine at all, which is another reason pregnant women and families with infants are encouraged to get the shot.
Copyright 2009 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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