Previous Story
DPH receives 6,000 doses of flu vaccines
|
Posted on Apr 08 2008
The Department of Public Health has received 6,000 doses of flu vaccines last week that were donated by the Joint Task Force Homeland Defense in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Immunization Program manager Mariana Sablan said the vaccines are of the same strain as the 5,000 shots that were received and distributed in October last year.
“The first 5,000 doses were pretty much given to senior citizens, some home-bound senior citizens and government agencies,” Sablan said.
She said it was enough to cover the high-risk population so the new doses that arrived will be made available to anyone who had not received their flu shots from October last year to today.
Sablan said the vaccines are available to anyone between the ages of six months to 99 years.
She said a mass administration of the flu vaccine is still in its planning process. “In the meantime, they [flu shots] are available at private providers, the San Antonio clinic, and the immunization clinic at Public Health.”
Sablan said that a little over two years ago, the vaccine supply was very limited because of funding issues and were mostly given to those within the high-risk population such as medically confined people or people with long-term illnesses.
But now, “because have established a good relationship with these people [Joint Task Force Homeland Defense], we’re able to get extra doses,” Sablan said.
She said the Honolulu team had been “very generous” in offering some of their flu vaccines to the Pacific community.
“We just hope that the community will come forward and get it to protect themselves,” Sabpan said.
A new strain of the flu vaccines is expected to arrive again this October.
