Schools to get first swine flu vaccines

Delaware's Division of Public Health will begin its school-based swine flu vaccination campaign Monday, starting with public elementary school students, who will receive the nasal-spray vaccine.

Health officials Thursday would not release the names of all schools that will receive vaccines next week, disclosing only that Christina's Smith Elementary, Capital's East Dover Elementary and Cape Henlopen's Milton Elementary will be among them. The full list of schools expected to receive the vaccines will be released today, according to division spokeswoman Heidi Truschel-Light.

Five teams of nurses will conduct inoculation clinics at schools in New Castle County, and five similar teams will visit schools in Kent and Sussex counties. The teams of about 10 to 16 nurses each will focus on children in grades K-5. A contractor that specializes in mass vaccinations will visit children in public middle and high schools starting Nov. 9, said Dr. Karyl Rattay, public health director.

The division provided permission slips to be distributed in Delaware's 19 school districts and 18 charter schools earlier this month. The deadline for returning them was last Friday. Rattay said the number of vaccines sent to schools will depend on the number of signed consent forms, for which she did not have a tally.

Students in grades K-5 will receive a vaccine that is sprayed into both nostrils. Students younger than 10 will need a second dose after four weeks. Consent forms for the second dose will be sent to parents after the first vaccinations.

Students in grades 6-12 will receive a flu shot and will require only one dose.

There are 125,000 public school students in the state. Delaware has been allocated 520,000 doses of the vaccine but received only 46,000 doses so far.

Rattay said 26,314 doses of the injectable H1N1 vaccine and 2,541 doses of the nasal-spray will arrive in Delaware next week. All of the nasal-spray doses and about 8,000 of the injectable doses will go toward the school-based vaccination campaign, she said.

The remaining injectable vaccines will go to pediatricians, oncologists and university health clinics for students with chronic conditions -- such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and a suppressed immune system.

The same contractor that will work in the public secondary schools also will administer vaccines for children in grades K-12 in private and parochial schools. That part of the campaign isn't expected to get under way until late November, Rattay said. Consent forms also were sent to private schools earlier this month.

Health officials say children are particularly vulnerable to the swine flu virus. More than 1,000 people in the United States -- including almost 100 children -- have died from the strain of flu known as 2009 H1N1. Delaware has had three deaths believed related to the swine flu virus. All three victims also had other medical conditions. One was a 15-year-old boy.

Health officials Thursday revised the number of confirmed H1N1 cases from 191 to 377 for the week of Oct. 11 to 17. They said the revision was because of the lag time between when doctors take and submit samples to when they can be tested and confirmed.

Last week, there were 265 new cases, bringing the number of confirmed swine flu cases in Delaware since Oct. 4 to 1,011.

According to public health officials, there were 296 reports of people with flu-like symptoms during the week of Oct. 11 to 17. That number jumped to 603 last week.