Best bet is to call your doctor

County does not have extra doses but will make public announcements as they become available, official says

By Sally Connell | sconnell@thetribunenews.com

Comments (0) |

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

The demand for the H1N1 vaccine remains high, and the county Public Health Department is advising pregnant women and people in other priority groups to contact their health professional directly to get the shot.

The department reports 21 hospitalizations countywide to date, and one death consistent with H1N1 infection. There have been only 111 laboratory confirmations of the disease, although health professionals in the county, state and nation believe that the predominant influenza strain in the community currently is H1N1.

The Public Health Department itself does not have extra vaccines at this point, and it will make announcements as they become available, according to spokeswoman Michelle Shoresman.

The latest shipment to the county of 5,600 doses has been distributed to health professionals who will administer them, and the county plans to start giving the shots to children at a few small schools soon.

The shortage locally reflects a nationwide issue.

Because of the number of cases, testing to confirm H1N1 has almost ceased except in special cases. The medical community is now making diagnoses based upon the fact that regional tests have shown it is the primary influenza in the population at this time.

This season is unusual in that regular seasonal influenza often comes later in the year after high-risk groups have received the flu shot.

In this case, the vaccines are arriving slowly even as the number of cases is increasing.

The priority groups for vaccines as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are: pregnant women, those aged 6 months to 24 years; those aged 24 to 64 with long-term health problems; those who live with or care for infants younger than six months, and health care and emergency workers.

About comments

Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com

SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.

Here are some rules of the road:

Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.