Vaccine shortage nixes Kane Co. H1N1 clinics

All currently scheduled H1N1 mass vaccination clinics in Kane County are canceled until further notice as the expectation of receiving more doses failed to materialize.

The county planned six more sites to vaccinate the middle and western portions of the county Nov. 2 and 9 with additional doses it expected to receive this week. A second large shipment of doses is no longer expected to arrive as a national shortage of the vaccine leaves thousands of local residents scrambling for shots.

"They may come in trickles," Kane County Health Department Spokesman Tom Schlueter said. "We may get 1,000 doses a week for the next couple weeks, but we don't know for sure. We can't do the mass clinics with that kind of volume."

For now, the clinics slated Nov. 2 for Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Central High School in Burlington and the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora are canceled. Nov. 9 clinics at Hampshire High School, Mooseheart and Elgin's Hemmens Auditorium are also off.

The health department estimated the county has as many as 192,000 people in the high-risk group who should have the H1N1 vaccine. The county had 12,000 does Monday and about 10,500 people were vaccinated.

Shelly Nguyen stood in line for more than three hours with her 2-year-old child Monday at Larkin High School in Elgin. She did so knowing she'd probably go through the ordeal a second time with her two other children who were home with fevers. So she was a bit shocked when clinic volunteers encouraged her to get the vaccine herself despite being outside the high-risk category.

"They told me, 'It's fine. You've been in line so you should get one. Don't worry about it,' " Nguyen said. "Now I feel terrible that I did because they are out."

Nguyen said she plans to contact various urgent care facilities until she finds a place where she can get her other two children the same protection she has. She said she feels all this may have been avoided by the county limiting the shot to the high-risk groups by verifying the need of each person in line.

"I'm very upset," Nguyen said. "I was assured that they were going to have plenty of doses. I could not believe it when I got the message this morning that they were out. My older kids were already home sick, but they weren't tested (for H1N1). I'm worried about what's going to happen."

Health department officials said Monday they would rely on the honor system and not check residency or health status at the public clinics. However, at that time they were confident of receiving more doses. About 200 other providers have ordered the vaccine, but have yet to receive any doses as far as the health department knows. The health department believes the delayed second shipment might be a result of the county receiving 17,500 doses in the first place.

"We got 17,000 doses, which is more than just about everybody else," Schlueter said. "Now, people may be thinking they should send out doses to others who didn't get it right away first."

The few remaining doses the health department has will be given to those who have appointments to be vaccinated or, in some cases, to people who have life-threatening conditions that require them to receive the vaccination as soon as possible, Schlueter said.

The Visiting Nurses Association of Fox Valley has also canceled its clinics because of the vaccine shortage.

The McHenry County Health Department will have appointment-only clinics Nov. 3, 4 and 6.