EXPANDED ELIGIBILITY
As of Dec. 1, Southeast Tennessee health departments will offer the H1N1 vaccine to everyone regardless of age, though people 49 and older must get the injectable form. The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department is already offering both forms of vaccine to anyone 65 and under. Only healthy nonpregnant adults are eligible for the nasal spray.
Vaccine supplies appear to be flowing freely to counties in Southeast Tennessee, resulting in planned public clinics at schools in the region, health officials said Monday.
Some students in nine counties in Southeast Tennessee will be able to get free H1N1 vaccines during in-school vaccine clinics starting next week.
Beginning Nov. 30, the clinics will be held at select schools in Bledsoe, Bradley, Franklin, Grundy, McMinn, Marion, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie counties. Parents should be getting permission slips sent home with students this week that would allow their child to get vaccinated by a nurse at school, officials said.
“The Tennessee Department of Health urges parents to take steps to protect their children from H1N1 flu by ensuring they receive this vaccine,” said Dr. Jan BeVille, Southeast Regional Health Officer, in a Monday news release. “Vaccination is the single best way to protect against the flu.”
As of now, no clinics are scheduled for students in Hamilton County schools, said Jennifer Yim, spokeswoman for the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department.
Health districts in Northwest Georgia aim to eventually distribute vaccine through the school systems, but there is not yet adequate supply, officials said.
In Southeast Tennessee, officials at the county level will decide which schools will host the clinics, said Beth Delaney, public information officer with the Southeast Region of the Tennessee Department of Health, which includes the 10 Tennessee counties surrounding Hamilton County.
Vaccine supply has improved recently in the region, she said, and the district now has “several thousand” doses of vaccine.
“We’re getting regular shipments and we have an adequate supply to conduct the in-school clinics,” she said.
Children who do not have asthma, diabetes or neurodevelopment problems will get the nasal spray vaccine and others will receive the injectable form of the vaccine.
For children under 10, two doses of the vaccine at least four weeks apart are recommend to provide full protection, and local health officials will return to schools to give the second dose, according to the news release.
Health care reporter Emily Bregel has worked at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since July 2006. She previously covered banking and wrote for the Life section. Emily, a native of Baltimore, Md., earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Columbia University. She received a first-place award for feature writing from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists’ Golden Press Card Contest for a 2009 article about a boy with a congenital heart defect. She ...
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