RSS
Home
Prioritize H1N1 vaccine to young children and pregnant women (updated 10/26)
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
(Maryland) To date, less than 131,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine have been shipped to Maryland. Ultimately, everyone needs to be protected from the H1N1 virus; but until ample supplies are available to treat everyone, clinics should prioritize their dispensing of the vaccines to our most vulnerable - young children and pregnant women.
It’s not news that schools and day care centers are breeding grounds for germs. When one child catches a cold or flu, or in today’s world the swine flu, it’s only a matter of time before that virus is passed from one child to other children, who pass it along to their parents, who take it to work and infect co-workers and so on. That’s the biological nature of a virus – it’s contagious. Another group in our population at particular risk regarding the swine flu is pregnant women.
From the CDC web site:
. . . Pregnant women who get sick with 2009 H1N1 can have serious health problems. They can get sicker than other people who get 2009 H1N1 flu. Some pregnant women sick with 2009 H1N1 have had early labor and severe pneumonia. Some have died.
But first come first served? The dispensing of H1N1 vaccines at Saturday’s Baltimore County clinic has at least one resident questioning the methods by which Baltimore County dispenses their supply of the vaccine. When one pregnant Baltimore County woman arrived at the Perry Hall clinic, she found thousands of vaccine seekers already in line. While vaccine sites in surrounding counties are prioritizing the dispensing of their vaccine supply to those in the highest risk groups, Baltimore County dispensed the hard to find vaccine to anyone in any of the five priority groups – leaving at least one mother to be and many children standing outside in the Saturday rain with no chance of getting their flu shot.
Open request to Baltimore County health officials: prioritize the dispensing of the H1N1 vaccine allotment to young children and pregnant women (please.) Those two groups are not only the most vulnerable to the H1N1 virus, but they are in fact, our future.
I will leave you with a letter I received from one Baltimore County resident whose pregnant wife went to the Saturday Baltimore County clinic site:
…. My wife is 8 months pregnant…. We went to our OB last Friday and asked about the H1N1 vaccine and were referred to the Baltimore County Health Department public vaccinations. We left the OB's office and went to Old Court Elementary for the vaccination - where after waiting in line for over an hour my wife was turned away after they ran out of vaccine.
This morning my wife tried to go to the Baltimore County Health Department Vaccination at Perry Hall Middle School. She got there shortly before the 10:00 am start of today's session to find 1,000's already in line, the line stretching over half a mile. The line was inundated with children and rain both of which are the exact opposite of ideal conditions for an expecting mother.
She called me at work and I called the Health Department to ask them what her options were. They told me that they already had reports of the vaccine running low and if she were to wait in line for hours she probably would not receive it. My wife had to weigh the risk of standing in line in the rain with thousands of people for hours or go without the vaccine. Needless to say her physical condition does not allow her to stand for that long of a time or walk long distances. After two attempts now in Baltimore County to receive the vaccine there seems to be no hope for her as others in lower priority groups are flooding the vaccination sites. At this time out of fear she forewent the vaccine today because of weather and sniffling-coughing children in line.
The conditions of her waiting in line for hours and risking pneumonia or other illness could be just as devastating as the H1N1 virus. The CDC study that found pregnant mothers in their third trimester were 4 times more likely to be hospitalized and 6 times more likely to result in death. I find it irresponsible that someone who is 600% more likely than I to die from the H1N1 virus is being put in line with a 24 year olds with much lower risk and whom do not have the physical limitations of an expecting mother. Many other counties around the country are making special provisions for pregnant women. Baltimore County is lumping all of the priority groups together and giving the more able, less at risk individuals a better opportunity at the vaccine then my wife.
For many months the CDC and our doctors have been alerting that deaths of pregnant women from H1N1 are 6 times more likely than the general population - yet Baltimore County is giving the vaccine to many other groups instead of just those with the highest need. The Baltimore County Health Department website says they are estimating around 400,000 Baltimore County residents in the priority groups A through E; however, they are distributing the vaccine to people in the lower priority groups before expecting mothers.
I am concerned that the Baltimore County Health Department who controls the entire supply of H1N1 vaccines for the public in the county is not responsibly distributing the vaccine to the most in need first and putting the health of expecting mothers -- especially those like my wife who are in their third trimester and not fully mobile -- at extreme risk. I believe Baltimore County should be making special arrangements for pregnant women to allow them to get the vaccine.
Two ways Baltimore County could do this would be to have a separate entrance for pregnant women or to give numbers to people upon arrival so pregnant women can avoid the rain, wait indoors, or at least in their cars.
We were both very let down by the past two vaccination programs and disappointed in how the County has left us fearful of where we go and what we touch …
Related Articles:
- Baltimore County H1N1 Vaccine Clinic Today
- Howard County students to receive H1N1 vaccinations
- Maryland school children top the priority list for H1N1 vaccine - if they can find it
- Controversy surrounds H1N1 vaccine administration methods at Baltimore city vaccine clinic
H1N1 Links:
- What Should Pregnant Women Know About 2009 H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu)?
- Baltimore County H1N1
- H1N1 Flu Information for the Public (Howard County)
- Maryland Department of Health and Hygiene (vaccine clinic sites)
- Harford County Health Department 2009 Seasonal Flu Vaccine Clinic Locations
- Harford County Health Department
- What To Do If You Get Sick: 2009 H1N1 and Seasonal Flu (Center for Disease Control)
Related Articles:
Comments
.jpg)
