There is a sense of anticipation regarding the arrival
and distribution of the H1N1 vaccines.
Dr. Carmen Rocco, M.D., of the Brownsville Kiddie Health
Center, said she has seen two groups from the public that stand out the most
when it comes to the slow manufacturing and distribution of the H1N1
vaccine.
One group of people is more concerned with the illness
than it is about the vaccine and the other group is more concerned with the
vaccine than it is with the illness.
"There’s one group who absolutely wants it and is calling
to see when we get it," Rocco said. "There’s another group that is
completely apprehensive about it."
The pediatrician said the second group seems to be
apprehensive about many issues, saying they do not believe people know
enough about the virus and some do not trust the government. Others in the
group are uneasy about how the vaccine is being manufactured and
distributed.
"What the American Academy of Pediatrics is seeing
nationwide [and what our office is seeing], I would say there’s more in the
group that wants it than the group that doesn’t," Rocco said, "at least at
this point."
There is an administration fee of $14.97 for the vaccine,
which covers the cost of supplies and nursing provisions.
Rocco received one shipment of 180 H1N1 vaccines two
weeks before Oct. 27, which was delivered directly to her office. She is
scheduled to receive another shipment this week.
Dr. Brian Smith, regional medical director for the Texas
Department of State Health Services from Health Service Region 11, said
12,000 medical providers have registered in Texas to receive the H1N1
vaccine.
Smith said of the 12,000, about 1,000 providers are
registered for Region 11, which includes the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus
Christi and Laredo. The companies that manufacture the vaccine are CSL
Limited, Glaxo SmithKline, MedImmune, Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur.
"Those are the manufacturers we have received vaccines
from, so far," he said.
Eugenia Curet, director of Student Health Services at
UTB/TSC, said there are prescription medications people can take to help
prevent or ease the symptoms of different types of influenza, including
H1N1.
"Those are anti-viral medications," Curet said. "Tamiflu
and the Relenza are two medications that when you’re getting flu symptoms,
you take them to help you with the illness."
She said that although these medications can help prevent
the contraction of H1N1, people still need to get vaccinated because it is
the vaccine that will stop the virus.
The Dr. Antonio Diaz, M.D., Family Practice in
Brownsville registered to receive the H1N1 vaccine in August. LVN and office
manager Leslie Yoste Diaz said the office received only one shipment, last
Tuesday.
Yoste Diaz said the state has allowed them to have 50
doses of the H1N1 vaccine, so far.
She said a representative from Glaxo SmithKline, which
manufactures vaccines for as H1N1, hepatitis A and B and Booster Tdap, told
her there are 2.5 million vaccines the U.S. government has contracted with
them, but the manufacturer is unable to distribute them yet.
"They’re just pending a clearance from the government,"
Yoste Diaz said. "They’re just waiting for the government to give the
approval and once they do they’re going to ship them out. It gets
distributed by how the government decides who’s going to get what."
When Dr. Diaz’s office registered to receive the H1N1
vaccine, they had to fill out a long questionnaire about the type of
patients they service, she said.
The Department of State Health Services allocates
vaccines according to the recommendations of the Centers for Disease
Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Yoste Diaz said "hundreds" of people have called asking
if they have the vaccine and when they will be receiving a shipment, but she
has not received word of when and if there will be another shipment.
Registered medical providers receive an e-mail to notify
them their vaccine order is available.
Priority groups for the vaccine such as young children,
pregnant women and health care workers changes often.
"I’m getting updates every week," Yoste Diaz said.There
is no administration fee for the vaccine at Diaz’s office, she said.
Johnny Torres, public information officer for the Hidalgo
County Health Department, said the county had received only 400 doses as of
last Tuesday.
The Hidalgo County Health Department wants at least 1,000
doses before distributing them to the county clinics first. Torres said the
reason for this is because he does not want to offer a small amount of
vaccines and have people panic because they did not receive any.
He also said "it takes too much" to set up a clinic with
traffic control, crowd control, security and staff.
"We want to make sure that when we are ready and I offer
the service, we’re going to give the best quality service that we can
provide within Hidalgo County," Torres said.
He said the slow process of distribution is nationwide.
"We are expecting more," Torres said. "It is a slow
process; it is taking a little bit longer than anticipated due to the fact
that there is a high demand for this vaccine. That’s why Cameron County is
also having the same problem."
As of Thursday, the Texas Department of State Health
Services had ordered more than 1.5 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine. The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has allocated about 2
million vaccine doses to Texas and are in the process of distributing them
to medical providers, according to the state health department.
Doug Arney, associate vice president for Business
Affairs, has e-mailed UTB/TSC students, faculty and staff an H1N1 vaccine
survey in order to get an estimate of how many people might go to Student
Health Services for the vaccine.
"We are trying to determine how many people would be
interested," Arney said, "because right now, we have [about] 12,500
students, and if half of them are interested, that’s going to be a lot of
people to try and [vaccinate]."
There are also about 2,000 faculty and staff members who
may want to be vaccinated on campus. He said the number of vaccines UTB/TSC
is going to receive over a period of time is 12,000 doses.
The earliest the Department of State Health Services
expects to have vaccines available for the general public is December.
"We expect allocations in the next few weeks to continue
to be focused on healthcare workers, pediatric populations and pregnant
women as well as close contact of children less than 6 years old," state
officials said in an e-mail obtained by The Collegian.
Curet expects that Student Health Services will begin
receiving shipments of the vaccine in December or January.
"We check with the state almost on a daily basis because
we have a registration number and a password and we can go there to see
whether they have allocated any vaccines for us," Curet said.
Visit the Web site for the Centers for Disease Control at cdc.gov to see
the availability of vaccines in different clinics.
