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The press release below may be outdated and no longer applicatory, but is
listed here for your reference to help you better serve our community
along side Lewis County Public Health. Should you have any questions or
concerns about any of these releases, please contact us immediately.
NEWS RELEASE
November 2, 2009
For Further Information call: Carol Paluck @ 315-376-5453
For
Immediate Release
Update
Regarding H1N1 in Lewis County
Lewis County Public Health has been actively
monitoring absentee rates in all the local school districts and rates of
flu-like- illness being seen in doctors’ offices and the local emergency
room. Carol Paluck, RN, Interim Director reports “widespread cases of
flu-like-illness throughout the county.” All the local school districts
are reporting greater than normal absenteeism, most of which is due to
flu-like-illness. It is very likely that much of this activity is
related to the H1N1 flu virus.
Since novel H1N1 flu is
known to be widespread in New York State, confirmatory testing for novel
H1N1 flu is now being done by the New York State Health Department on a
case-by-case basis to track the severity of the virus.
Lewis County Public
Health has received a limited number of doses of H1N1 vaccination over
the last two weeks. Orders for additional vaccine have been placed by
Lewis County General Hospital, Public Health and local medical
providers. We anticipate that eventually there will be enough vaccine
for all of those individuals at greatest risk of complications from
H1N1. The vaccine is expected to arrive in small amounts over regularly
scheduled intervals.
Lewis County Public
Health has scheduled H1N1 vaccination clinics for the following Lewis
County individuals:
•
Pregnant women
•
Persons who live with or provide care for infants less than 6 months of
age ( parents, siblings and day care providers)
•
Children and young adults ages 6 months to 24 years old
•
Adults ages 25 to 64 years old with specific risk factors, such as asthma,
diabetes, heart disease, immunosupression, etc.
•
Health Care personnel and EMS who provide direct patient care
The following community
clinic schedule may be subject to change due to vaccine availability.
Please be patient as we attempt to vaccinate those at highest risk first
in the event of vaccine shortage. It may become necessary to further
screen and offer vaccination to a reduced population of at risk
individuals if vaccine does not arrive as anticipated. The vaccine is
being offered free of charge.
Wednesday, November 4th 5pm to 7pm
Beaver River Central School
Monday, November 9 th
5pm to 7pm Harrisville Central School cafeteria
Thursday, November 12th
5pm to 7pm Lowville Academy cafeteria
Monday, November 16th
5pm to 7pm South Lewis High School cafeteria
Monday November 23rd
5pm to 7pm Copenhagen Central School cafeteria
Influenza vaccination is
proven to be the best protection against all varieties of influenza virus.
Even though H1N1 is a new
virus, the vaccine manufacturing process is not new. Note that every year,
seasonal flu vaccine is essentially new as the viruses contained in the
vaccine change from year to year. The H1N1 vaccination has been
manufactured in the exact same way as seasonal flu vaccine. The ONLY
difference between the 2 vaccines is that seasonal flu contains 3 viruses
and H1N1 contains a single virus. The H1N1 vaccine has been fully
licensed, just as seasonal flu vaccine.
Lewis County Public
Health will be receiving both nasal spray and injectable forms of the
vaccine and will be administering the vaccine to people according to the
manufacturers recommendations. We encourage residents who are eligible to
receive the nasal spray form to do so as to reserve the injectable form
for those at risk residents who cannot have the nasal spray. The nasal
spray can only be used in healthy individuals between the ages of 2 and
49.
If you wish to find out
additional information on the H1N1 vaccination, please go to
For more
information on local flu clinics, H1N1 and seasonal flu, please visit our
web site at
or call our
office at 315-376-5453.
