From staff reports



If you’ve been waiting for the swine flu vaccine to become available in Lauderdale County, your wait will be over Monday, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.

But there’s a catch — The supply of the vaccine is limited and so will only be administered to people in specific priority groups.

Pregnant women, children aged 6 months through 4 years, and the parents, siblings, caregivers, and anyone else living in the house with an infant under 6 months of age are considered to be at the highest risk for complications from influenza and so will be given the first injectable vaccine doses at county clinics.

The vaccine is available free at all county health departments in Mississippi to people who fall into the above categories.

MSDH will also begin mass vaccinations for students at some schools throughout the state next week. The school vaccinations of the nearly 500,000 school-aged children in Mississippi will take several weeks to complete. Parents will be sent consent forms.

Liz Sharlot, director of Communications for MSDH, said there is not enough vaccine to administer it at all schools in the state right away, but that “all students will eventually be vaccinated.”

“We’ve got to disperse that (limited amount of vaccine) throughout the state, and especially we’ve got to make sure that those who need the vaccine first will get it first,” she said.

Sharlot said MSDH will not be issuing the names of schools where the vaccine will be administered, and added that some schools have opted out of getting the vaccine.

For those not in the high priority groups, State Epidemiologist Dr. Mary Currier recommends getting your seasonal flu shot to protect yourself from seasonal influenza in the meantime. Also, continue using basic prevention methods including washing your hands frequently or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, coughing or sneezing into your sleeve, or coughing into a tissue followed by hand-washing, and avoiding close contact with those who are sick.

If you are ill, MSDH recommends that you stay home until you are well, unless you need to see a doctor, in which case call first to prevent possible transmission in the doctor’s waiting area.

So far, 223,800 doses of the vaccine have been allocated to Mississippi. Of those doses, 146,000 are injectable vaccines and 77,800 are nasal mist vaccines.

For more information on swine flu, visit the MSDH Web site at www.healthyms.org or call the toll-free MSDH hotline at 1-877-222-9FLU. The hotline hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except state holidays.