Health officials: over 12,000 were vaccinated for H1N1 locally
By Anne HardingLEWISTON -The H1N1 vaccine became publicly available to anyone over the age of 6 months in December. And Idaho Public Health Community Health Director Candi Barton said in the north central district they had a good turnout for those clinics. Multimedia"In our district the health department actually gave over 12,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine," said Barton. "We gave about that much to our community partners as well, physician offices, pharmacies and other providers. We had a fairly well take rate of that vaccine. I think people really understood the importance of getting vaccinated against H1N1." Barton said next year getting the shot will be simpler, since they can combine the H1N1 vaccine into the seasonal flu shot. Barton said although H1N1 was less severe in the United States than other parts of the world, at Public Health they take life threatening illness very seriously. "In the United States there were between 41 and 84 million cases of H1N1 and between 8 ,000 and 17,000 people died as a result of that illness," said Barton. "In our state we saw 22 deaths, one of them unfortunately was in our health district. I think anytime there's a disease, that's communicable, that can result in death, it's Public Health's responsibility to try and promote that vaccine and reduce the amount of illness." Barton said they are still offering both the seasonal flu shot and H1N1 shot. Next year's combined shot should be available sometime in October. Most Popular |
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