“We are going to be visiting every senior center, nutrition center and high school as well as other locations to take the flu shots into the community making it very accessible to people no matter where they live” said Dusty Warden, Outreach Coordinator for ProAction. “Stretching into the far reaches of the county is also equally important where traditional healthcare resources are either limited or unavailable.”
Children, seniors and the medically frail are all particularly vulnerable to fall ill from the flu, however with flu supplies up this year, flu shots are available to everybody 6 months and older who wants to protect themselves from the potentially life threatening bug.
It is extremely important to be immunized against the flu. Every year in the United States, on average 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu; more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications, and about 36,000 people die from flu. The Centers for Disease Control and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have centered themselves around a push to immunize more people against the potentially fatal disease.
The 2007 recommendations include six principal changes or updates:
• ACIP reemphasizes the importance of administering 2 doses of vaccine to all children aged 6 months–8 years if they have not been vaccinated previously at any time on the basis of accumulating data indicating that 2 doses are required for protection in these children.
• ACIP recommends that children aged 6 months–8 years who received only 1 dose in their first year of vaccination receive 2 doses the following year.
• ACIP reiterates a previous recommendation that all persons, including school-aged children, who want to reduce the risk of becoming ill with influenza or of transmitting influenza to others should be vaccinated.
• ACIP emphasizes that immunization providers should offer influenza vaccine and schedule immunization clinics throughout the influenza season.
• ACIP recommends that health-care administrators consider the level of vaccination coverage among healthcare personnel to be one measure of a patient safety quality program and implement policies to encourage vaccination.
• The 2007–2008 trivalent vaccine strains are A/Solomon Islands/3/2006 (H1N1)-like (new for this season), A/Wisconsin/
Photo Opportunities…
Video and still photographs may be obtained at our main office and clinic located at 222 S. Campbell, Basement – Inside the Tillman Health Center. Clinic services are provided Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM. We will also be available at immunization locations listed on the schedule attached. To schedule an opportunity and/or interview please contact Dusty Warden at 915-727-0898.
