Swine flu vaccines trickling in to suburbs

The first shipments of H1N1 vaccine are arriving in the suburbs, more than a week after the city of Chicago starting distributing the vaccine.

DuPage County is the first collar county to offer the nasal spray vaccine to the general public. Kane County also has received the nasal spray and is starting public immunizations beginning Oct. 26, after first vaccinating health-care workers and emergency responders.

Health officials are still waiting for delivery of injectable vaccines for the H1N1 virus - also known as swine flu - which were expected in mid-October, but now are anticipated closer to the end of the month.

Big cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles typically get shipments of flu vaccinations ahead of other areas to inoculate otherwise underserved patients, health officials said.

Illinois is still awaiting delivery of 57,000 injectable doses of vaccine outside of Chicago. Meanwhile, the number of sites that have ordered vaccines for delivery to the public has grown from an initial 3,000 sites to more than 4,700.

Part of the delay is attributable to a handful of manufacturers trying to produce both the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine in unprecedented quantities.

Once it became evidence that swine flu was circulating ahead of the seasonal flu, production flip-flopped from seasonal vaccines to H1N1.

At the regional level, each county is making plans for distributing vaccines, but officials say they can reach only a fraction of all those who need shots. The rest will have to come from pharmacies, doctors, clinics, hospitals and other health-care facilities.

DuPage County currently is offering the nasal spray at its four public health centers in Wheaton, Addison, Lombard and Westmont.

Patients will be required to fill out paperwork designating which of the high-priority groups they fall into. Residents should call the H1N1 hotline at (630) 221-7600 to arrange for the vaccination.

Kane County plans public immunizations at nine locations for three Mondays in a row starting Oct. 26, and on Saturdays Nov. 21 and Dec. 5.

For details, see kanehealth.com.

In Lake County, officials plan to start giving 40,000 inoculations Oct. 29 at four locations to be named around the county.

"We know that children are at relatively greater risk of becoming seriously ill with the H1N1 flu strain if they get it, so we are particularly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated through their health-care providers," said Irene Pierce, director of the Lake County Health Department.

Cook County will announce its immunization plans today. McHenry County is awaiting its first H1N1 vaccines, as well as a resupply of seasonal flu vaccines, but has lined up more than 200 nurse volunteers to help give the needle jabs once they're available.

The first immunizations are targeted for patients most at risk of developing serious complications from swine flu: health-care workers; caregivers or those who live with children under age 6 months; those age six months to 24 years; those age 25 to 64 who have chronic medical problems like heart or respiratory conditions, including asthma; and pregnant women.

Yet, pregnant women and those with chronic disease including asthma are warned not to use the live virus in the nasal spray, but to wait for the injections, which contain killed virus.

Those not in a high-risk group are asked to wait to get a vaccine, and county health departments are meant to serve only their own residents. But those requirements are based on the honor system. Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said, "No one will be turned away."