H1N1 vaccine to be available to everyone

BARSTOW • Public health clinics, including the Barstow clinic, will offer the H1N1 influenza vaccine free to anyone who wants it beginning Monday.

Private health care providers have been administering the vaccine to their patients, and the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health is still partnering with school districts’ efforts to vaccinate their students. But up until now the county has offered the vaccine only to those labeled high risk, including children and pregnant women.

“What we are doing now is lifting the embargo about priority groups,” said Maxwell Ohikhuare, the county’s health officer. “We think a lot of the priority groups have been served, so it’s time to open it up to everybody else who wants it.”

Both the Flu Mist nasal vaccine and the shot vaccine will be available, Ohikhuare said. And, depending on availability, public health clinics will also be offering the seasonal flu vaccine.

County health officials are also assuring residents that even though four lots of the H1N1 vaccine for children 6-months-old to 35-months-old have been recalled due to potency issues, the doses are still safe and an extra dose isn’t necessary. About 10 to 15 doses of the recalled vaccine have been administered at public health clinics, Ohikhuare said.

“The vaccine itself is not dangerous; the potency is not where it’s expected to be,” Ohikhuare said. “There will still be some immunity, they don’t need an extra dose to compensate that. Most children in this category are eventually going to receive a second dose anyway.”

Because the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two doses a month apart for children younger than 10-years-old, Barstow Unified School District will be holding a second H1N1 vaccination event, at the district office, Jan. 4. According to Joni James, the district’s director of pupil services, the vaccination event will only target high risk groups such as children and pregnant women. The first H1N1 vaccination event was held Dec. 2.

“It gives those students that are under nine (a chance) to get that second dose so they don’t have to find some place else to do it,” James said.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com

To get vaccinated:
Where: Barstow Public Health Clinic, 303 East Mountain View Street.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays
Cost: Free
Appointments: Required, call 1-800-722-4777