UI receives H1N1 vaccine, but not the kind it needs
URBANA – H1N1 vaccine has arrived on the University of Illinois campus, but it came with two complications: It's the wrong kind for people who need it the most – those with chronic health conditions – and there's not enough of it to hold a walk-in vaccination clinic.
Dr. Robert Palinkas, director of the UI McKinley Health Center, said several hundred doses of nasal vaccine have arrived unexpectedly, and they're now being offered to students who book an appointment at the health center online.
Unfortunately, Palinkas said, the nasal vaccine – intended only for healthy people ages 2 to 49 – can't be administered to pregnant students and those with asthma, diabetes and a variety of other conditions that leave people at risk for flu complications.
McKinley Health Center didn't ask for the nasal vaccine, Palinkas said, but that's what's in the supply pipeline right now.
"We would prefer the injectable because we could have given it to those who needed it the most," he said. "But you get what you get."
On top of the H1N1 priority list for McKinley officials are about 1,000 to 2,000 students on the Urbana-Champaign campus with asthma, 400 to 500 students with diabetes and 1,000 or so more with some form of disability.
Because of the limited quantity McKinley has on hand, Palinkas said, the vaccine is only being offered to those who book appointments on the McKinley Web site. Students are booking appointments fast, and about a dozen were vaccinated within the first couple of hours Wednesday, he said.
CHAMPAIGN – The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District will begin H1N1 vaccinations today at Thomasboro Grade School, agency Administrator Julie Pryde said.
Public health will then set up vaccination clinics in the two year-round Champaign schools that are in session Friday, Kenwood and Barkstall elementary schools. Plans to offer vaccinations Friday at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Urbana were canceled because there isn't enough time for the school to get ready, Pryde said.
Plans to vaccinate students at two other Champaign elementary schools, Washington and Stratton, were canceled because those schools are closed that day for parent-teacher conferences.
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