Santa Clara Co. Shorted on H1N1 Vaccine
Updated 9:00 AM PST, Thu, Oct 29, 2009
Santa Clara County officials announced Wednesday that fewer residents will be able to receive the H1N1 vaccine due to a lower distribution of doses than expected.
County spokeswoman Gwen Mitchell said the county had initially been allotted 211,000 doses, but that the number has since been reduced to 8,800.
"There's been a lower production of the vaccine nationwide, so there are fewer doses altogether available for distribution nationwide," Mitchell said.
She said officials are concerned about why the supply hadn't arrived as of Wednesday afternoon.
Mitchell said county health officials are going to continue to raise the issue with the state and to contact the manufacturers of the vaccine to ask for a reasonably adequate supply.
"We're going to keep the pressure on," she said.
Board of Supervisors President Liz Kniss said additional doses of the H1N1 vaccine injections are necessary for a county with a population of 1.8 million residents.
County officials estimated that about 800,000 residents meet the federal criteria of those at-risk of illness or serious complication from the H1N1 virus.
Federal criteria requires that priority be given to pregnant women, caregivers of infants under 6 months of age, health care and emergency medical service workers, and everyone from 6 months of age to 64 years old with medical conditions that put them at higher risk for flu-related complications.
Earlier this month, the public health department and 50 medical providers in the county, received 14,000 doses of the nasal spray. It was administered to healthy children between the ages of 2 and 10.
First Published: Oct 29, 2009 8:57 AM PST
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