Swine flu vaccine clinic under way for pregnant women

By Kaye Spector
Health and Medical Reporter, The Plain Dealer

The county's first large-scale H1N1 flu vaccination clinic for pregnant
women got off the ground Thursday after the county Board of Health asked
for – and received – more than 1,000 injectable vaccines from three
local hospitals.
The county health board began contacting local hospitals, asking them
to share after injectable vaccines began trickling into Cuyahoga County
from the state last week.

The county's proposition: Give us some of your vaccine and we will
contact the 1,800 pregnant women who have either registered with the
Ohio Department of Health or contacted us, and we will administer the
vaccine.

County officials are eager to vaccinate pregnant women, who can only
receive injectable vaccine, as they have the highest H1N1 mortality
rates.

Pregnant women cannot receive the nasal mist form of vaccine because it
contains live virus.

About seventy-five percent of the 1,500 vaccines available at the
Thursday clinic came from MetroHealth Medical Center, the Cleveland
Clinic and Southwest General Health Center, said Terry Allen, the county
health commissioner.

MetroHealth gave nearly 900 doses, said chief medical officer Dr.
Alfred Connors.

While MetroHealth doctors are providing vaccinations to their patients
who qualify, the clinics are a faster way to get to patients than the
normal routes of contacting patients and scheduling appointments, he
said.

“What we're trying to do is get as many people vaccinated as quickly
as possible,” Connors said. “They had a mechanism to get that to
them quickly.”

He said he expected many of the women at the county's vaccination
clinic would be MetroHealth patients.

Nearly 550 pregnant women were vaccinated Thursday. Some children who
accompanied their mothers received the nasal mist vaccine.

“It doesn't make sense for healthy people to be coming to a
hospital,” Allen said. “This is a better way to serve a healthy
population and help them.”

A new shipment of vaccine is scheduled to arrive next week, Allen said.
He expects to be talking to hospitals again about sharing their
allotments.

“We don't want the vaccine to collect any dust,” Allen said. “We
want to get it out on the street as soon as possible.”

Health district officials will decide soon what priority group to
vaccinate, perhaps pregnant women again or children with chronic
illness.

“We're going to have to continue to broker vaccine available for use
in the community, particularly as we go forward,” Allen said. “It's
a federal asset that should be moved around.”