H1N1, anyone?

By Darryl Swan

The South County Spotlight, Oct 21, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

David Holley / The South County Spotlight

Pieces of the pandemic — An instructional pamphlet, nasal applicator for the Flumist H1N1 live-culture vaccine and a pair of latex gloves are part of the health care providers arsenal for battling back the H1N1 flu bug.

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Columbia County so far has reported a mixed bag of flu occurrences, according to information provided by local health care services.

Joyce Torrence, manager of the Legacy Urgent Care Clinic in St. Helens, says there has been a slight uptick in the volume of people inquiring about flu vaccines.

“There’s been an increase, but it hasn’t been overwhelming,” Torrence says.

As of yet an intravenous version of the H1N1 vaccine has been slow to make its appearance in Oregon due to manufacturing delays. Instead, health agencies have received and distributed doses of Flumist, a nasal spray comprised of living H1N1 virus strains, to populations most at risk of contracting swine flu, such as the very young.

Diane Hutson, the practice manager for the Oregon Health Sciences University clinic in Scappoose, reports that the demand for H1N1 vaccines, and the instances of H1N1 occurrences, are up.

“Probably about a week and a half ago it started,” Hutson said.

She said the clinic installed a new phone line to manage the influx of flu-related calls, and added that nearly every flu case fielded at the clinic is the H1N1 strain.

“We’ve even quit testing [for seasonal or H1N1 flu strains],” she said. “It doesn’t really matter now.”

The Columbia Health District receives shipments of the flu vaccine each week. Officials are distributing the vaccines to clinics, such as Legacy and OHSU, and are trying to save up enough of the vaccine so that they can open a clinic at the health district office.

When the district’s clinic will open is still unclear, said Anne Parrott, county preparedness coordinator.

“We only know one week in advance what vaccine we’re getting,” she said. “If we had it, we’d be the first to let you know.”

The Center for Disease Control is behind on H1N1 vaccine production. Parrot said they planned to make about 3.4 million vials of it for their first batch. They only made about 3 million, however.

Flu facts and fighting tips

Flu types

The seasonal flu is a virus that causes respiratory illness transmitted person to person. Most people have some immunity to the seasonal flu, yet in the United States flu causes an annual average of 226,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths.

Pandemic H1N1 (formerly known as swine flu) is a new influenza virus first detected in the U.S. in April 2009. It causes the same type of illness as seasonal flu, but very few people are immune to this virus strain.

Vaccines

The seasonal flu vaccine will not protect against H1N1 influenza.

The seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccine is available in either a nasal spray or injectable dose. People who shouldn’t take nasal spray doses are pregnant women, children under the age of 2 and people with asthma and other chronic respiratory conditions.

In the case of both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccines, they are safe for pregnant women, though pregnant women should only take the injectable dose, not the nasal spray.

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