Free swine-flu vaccinations available Saturday

PHOTO COURTESY DELAND FIRE DEPARTMENT
Firefighters get shots — Paramedic Matt Dyer applies a bandage after giving Lt. Roy Bruce of the DeLand Fire Department a swine-flu vaccine shot. The City of DeLand received 99 free vaccine doses from the Volusia County Health Department for high-risk employees in the public-safety departments. The swine-flu (H1N1) vaccine will be made available to the general public at a clinic 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Volusia County Fairgrounds.

PHOTO COURTESY VOLUSIA COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
In line for vaccinations — The line was long Nov. 14, as 2,700 students, teachers and school staff from Deltona, Orange City and DeLand schools — public and private — came to a swine-flu vaccination clinic at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona. Another clinic Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Volusia County Fairgrounds, will offer the vaccinations to other at-risk people.

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 19, 2009 - 2:41:06pm

The Volusia County Health Department has been partnering with Volusia County Schools to make swine-flu vaccinations available to schoolchildren, who are often hit especially hard by the virus.

Doses of the vaccine have been in short supply.

Now, swine-flu (H1N1) vaccinations will be available to other priority groups at a free vaccination clinic 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, in the Tommy Lawrence Arena at the Volusia County Fairgrounds, 3150 E. New York Ave., DeLand.

The priority groups include:

• People ages 25-64 years who have health complications associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza

• Pregnant women

• Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months

• Health-care and emergency-medical-services personnel

• People ages 6 months through 24 years.

The clinic will offer both nasal-spray vaccine and injectable vaccine. The nasal vaccine is approved for healthy people between the ages of 2 and 49. The injectable vaccine is injected in the arm muscle.

Both vaccines are safe and effective protection against the swine-flu virus, Volusia County Health Department Director Dr. Bonnie Sorensen said.

H1N1, or swine-flu, vaccinations are voluntary. Learn more by visiting online at www.volusiahealth.com and clicking on "Let’s Fight Flu Together." More information is also available by calling the Health Department Flu Information Line at 1-866-821-7704.

Consent forms are required before the vaccine will be administered. The forms must be signed by the person receiving the vaccine or a child’s parent or guardian. The forms are available on the Web site, and can be filled out in advance.

People who have a severe allergy to eggs or any other substances in the vaccine should not get the swine-flu vaccine.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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