Published: November 04, 2009 04:21 pm      

Flu clinic set...again

Crystal Brown

cbrown@weatherforddemocrat.com

The Parker County Hospital District is hosting a seasonal flu shot for Weatherford ISD students ages 4 to 18 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the Hall Middle School cafeteria.

Shots are free and will be delivered on a first-come first-serve basis.

This is only for the seasonal flu and is not intended for children under age 4. No H1N1 vaccines are available at this time.

Katheleen Durham, marketing director for the Parker County Hospital District, said staff will start handing out paperwork for parents to fill out at about 7:30 a.m. Four nurses are scheduled to be at the site to deliver the vaccine.

“We’ve got a good stock,” Durham said, noting they have 1,000 doses available. “Our goal is to not have people up there waiting all day.”

Durham said the district has fulfilled all the flu clinics they had cancelled due to a shortage of the vaccine and the Weatherford ISD clinic is the last one to complete.

“Weatherford ISD has been wonderful to work with,” Durham said. “We pulled this together rather quickly. There are number of children in the school district who haven’t been able to find the vaccine.”

She said it’s not too late to receive the seasonal flu shot.

“That’s a big misconception,” she said. “The CDC recommended to get it earlier this year. I don’t feel we’ve seen the full swing of seasonal flu come in. We had people get shot as late as end of December last year and that wasn’t too late because the second round of flu came through in January and February.

“The seasonal flu shot is available. Take advantage of that, it’s important.”

As far as the H1N1 vaccine, the hospital district continues to play the waiting game, Durham said. She said they have placed an order for 14,000 doses.

“We are taking our protocol from the CDC,” she said. “They have issued us a very strict priority group to give the first doses to including health care workers and first responders.”

That includes EMS workers, fire departments, both paid and volunteer, the sheriff’s office and police departments.

“Once we fulfill that obligation, then we can open up to the community and other priority groups like pregnant women and children ages 2 to 18 with underlying medical conditions,” she said. “We go online everyday to check and see where they are releasing the doses and how much. It’s just a matter of them sending 300 doses here and 300 doses there.”

Once the first responders are taken care of, Durham said additional shot clinics will be scheduled to administer the H1N1 vaccine.

For more information call (817) 599-1229 or (817) 598-2823 or the Parker County Hospital District at (817) 341-2520