VAccinations

 

WASHTENAW COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH ANNOUNCES H1N1 CLINIC DETAILS (11/4/09)

 

Flu vaccinations

 

University health officials recommend that all students, faculty and staff consider getting a seasonal flu vaccination. Health System leaders are strongly urging all Health System staff members to get the vaccine as well as the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available.

Seasonal vaccine

There is an ample supply of the seasonal flu vaccine and it will be offered in many places through the broader community on an earlier timetable this year. Many physician offices, drugstores and other health care providers are offering the seasonal flu vaccinations.

 

In years past, some units on campus have set up times when employees have the opportunity to get a seasonal flu vaccine if they choose. It’s difficult to determine what those plans may be this year for all units.

Please check with your supervisor or your unit Human Resources representative for information specific to your unit.

The University Health Service is offering season flu vaccines and has several clinics already scheduled. Here is a link to those UHS clinics: http://www.uhs.umich.edu/fluvaccination

The University of Michigan Health System also has developed a Web site to track the growing number of seasonal flu vaccination clinics throughout the community. Here is a link: http://www.med.umich.edu/flu/shots/community.htm

 

H1N1 vaccine

 

Plans announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for making the H1N1 vaccine free to everyone through the network of state and county health departments. The vaccine will be distributed in the Ann Arbor area through the Washtenaw County Health Department.

What role the U-M might play in helping to distribute the vaccine to faculty and staff or the general public is still to be determined. The U-M will offer the H1N1 vaccine to students.

As you may have read in the news media, shipment of the H1N1 vaccine may begin soon and studies seem to indicate that one dose of the vaccine may be sufficient to provide protection instead of the two does initially prescribed.

According to the CDC, the H1N1 vaccine will be distributed first to those groups determined to be the most vulnerable to the flu.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel made up of medical and public health experts, met this summer to recommend how to distribute the H1N1 vaccine. The groups recommended to receive the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine include:

• Pregnant women because they are at higher risk of complications and can potentially provide protection to infants who cannot be vaccinated.

• Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age because younger infants are at higher risk of influenza-related complications and cannot be vaccinated. Vaccination of those in close contact with infants younger than 6 months old might help protect infants by “cocooning” them from the virus.

• Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel because infections among healthcare workers have been reported and this can be a potential source of infection for vulnerable patients. Also, increased absenteeism in this population could reduce healthcare system capacity.

• All people from 6 months through 24 years of age. Children from 6 months through 18 years of age because cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza have been seen in children who are in close contact with each other in school and day care settings, which increases the likelihood of disease spread. Young adults 19-24 years of age because many cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza have been seen in these healthy young adults and they often live, work, and study in close proximity, and they are a frequently mobile population.

• Persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza.