About H1N1 vaccine, H1N1vaccine production, H1N1 vaccine manufacturers

by Jacobo Tarrío

Everyone eligible for H1N1 vaccine

The Paulding County Health Department is now offering free H1N1 vaccine to everyone six months and older who wishes to receive it, according to health department Nurse Manager Teresa Knight.

“We now enough H1N1 vaccine so we offer it to anyone who wants to receive it,” said Knight. The vaccine, which until recently had been in small supply, is available at the Health Department, 451 Jimmy Campbell Parkway, Dallas, on a walk-in basis, while supply lasts, beginning each day at 7:30 a.m.

Knight emphasized that while guidelines for offering the vaccine have been relaxed, public health experts are still encouraging people in the following five high-risk groups particularly to get the H1N1 vaccination:

• pregnant women;

• caregivers of infants less than 6 months of age;

• children and young adults age 6 months to 24 years;

• persons 25-64 years who have medical conditions that place them at risk and;

• health care and emergency medical service workers.

The H1N1 vaccine is free; but, clients are questioned to bring their private insurance, Medicare, Medicare supplement, PeachCare or Medicaid card as a small administration fee may be charged to their insurance.

“No client will be billed or expected to pay,” Knight stresses, adding that “clients with no insurance will not be charged or expected to pay.”

Although the H1N1 pandemic seems to be slowing, with fewer cases being reported in Georgia and nationally, residents should remain on guard.

“What we typically see in a pandemic are a series of waves,” Knight clarified. “Our concern is that holiday gatherings and travel will give the influenza virus a chance to infect more people and trigger another wave.”

While most people who catch H1N1 recover at home without medical treatment, public health officials now estimate that H1N1 flu has sickened nearly 50 million Americans and killed nearly 10,000.

Addressing concerns about H1N1 vaccine safety, Knight cites CDC reports that “so far everything they’ve reviewed looking for adverse events is extremely reassuring about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine. They’re seeing pretty much what we see for seasonal flu vaccines — a sore arm or redness in the arm, a small tenderness, effects that are quite common with any injected vaccine. The H1N1 vaccine has been produced essentially the same way by the same companies in the same plants that make our seasonal flu vaccine each year, and hundreds of millions of doses of seasonal flu vaccine have been given with an brilliant safety record. We don’t expect the H1N1 vaccine to be any different.

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