Medical workers still waiting for H1N1 vaccine

Like soldiers without armor, many medical providers working on the front line of the battle against the H1N1 flu virus have been unable to get vaccinated against it.

Just ask Mary Mueller. As a physician's assistant in Lake Zurich, she typically works with four to eight patients with the virus, also known as swine flu, each day.

Hospitals have been giving flu vaccinations to their own workers, but because Mueller isn't on staff at a hospital, she wasn't able to get the vaccine.

Like many medical practices, her employer, Alpine Family Physicians in Lake Zurich, wasn't able to get any vaccine, either. By last week, one of the doctors already got sick with the flu, and at least two dozen workers needed the shot.

Mueller tried Cook County, where she lives, but its appointments are backed up until January. With her mother having surgery this week, and Mueller having to take care of her, she can't afford to have the flu, even if it's often mild. She started wearing a surgical mask at work and makes sick patients wear a mask.

"I'm going to get sick before I get a shot," she said in exasperation.

In response to the situation, Centegra Health System, where one of Mueller's doctors is affiliated, on Wednesday offered to vaccinate the staff.

"Finally!" Mueller said with relief.

Numerous doctors, nurses and assistants say if they're not with a hospital, they're as out of luck as the general population.

With delays in the manufacture of the vaccine, public health agencies in Chicago and the collar counties have distributed more than 100,000 vaccines, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to a metropolitan area population of nearly 9 million.

Dr. Martine Nelson, a pediatrician in Naperville, said none of her staff has been vaccinated. Though her office routinely administers thousands of seasonal flu shots a year, they can't get the H1N1 vaccine for staff or patients.

In Naperville, 12 members of pediatrician Timothy Wall's staff came down sick with flu before they ever had a chance to get the vaccine.

Ultimately, Wall's staff got vaccines from Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

"The problem with using the (DuPage County) health department now," Wall said, "is they are scheduled into December, but health providers should have gotten their vaccine on the front side of the epidemic."

The Illinois Department of Public Health tried to prioritize medical providers by first sending the vaccine to hospitals and county health departments.

This past week, the state has begun getting vaccine to private providers in the Chicago area, concentrating on pediatricians and obstetricians who can get it to children and expectant mothers.

Federal authorities shipped 100,000 doses to the state this week, for a total of 1.2 million, much less than what was expected by now due to production delays.

"We understand people are frustrated, and we share that frustration," Illinois Department of Health spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said. "We're doing the best we can with what we have."

At the county level, DuPage is one county that set up special vaccinations for ailing children. It also supplied vaccine to obstetricians at DuPage Medical Group to give to pregnant women. But other counties' clinics have been for the broad priority groups of pregnant women, health care workers, caregivers for infants under 6 months, anyone age 6 months to 24 years, and those 25 to 64 with medical conditions that put them at risk of flu complications.

Statewide, 12 people died from swine flu in Illinois in the past week, for a total of 48. There were also 368 hospitalizations, for a total of 1,371, a jump of 37 percent. Nationally, a Harvard University poll found two-thirds of Americans who tried to get the vaccine couldn't.

And many people with chronic medical conditions that put them at risk continue to be denied immediate access to the vaccine.

Susan Daniel, a 45-year-old woman from Vernon Hills, has lupus, an immune system disorder, Crohn's disease, and asthma, but the earliest she could get a vaccination scheduled was for January.

So instead of waiting, Daniel will drive to get a vaccination Monday from the county health department in Springfield, where her parents live and her family has had no problem getting the vaccine.

"Why isn't someone giving these shots to doctors to give them to high-risk patients?" she asked. "This seems absolutely absurd."