LPOSD: Big demand for H1N1 shots

SANDPOINT — Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Dick Cvitanich has tried to get immunized against the H1N1 flu virus without success.“I’ve been to three schools and I’ve been turned down three different times,” he said during Tuesday’s regular trustee meeting held at Kootenai Elementary School.Cvitanich is not the only school district employee who has not received shots through Panhandle Health District’s traveling immunization program. School teachers and noncertified staff such as cafeteria employees and janitors are not on an approved first-served immunization list.That has created concern by some teachers that bus drivers are receiving the vaccine ahead of them, but without healthy bus drivers it would be difficult for children to get to school, Cvitanich said.

Spokane school districts have struggled with that issue. A lot of people have signed up to be immunized, he said. Fortunately, there has not been a lot of frustration with the shortage, he said.“I think the big prize was the the number of people who have signed up,” Cvitanich said.Instead, students and bus drivers are being given priority because five of then six companies which make the vaccine have had problems not only making, but also with getting the virus to grow.The only company that has been successful with growing the vaccine, MedImmune, said it can make 200 million of the 250 million nasal doses needed, but it has only 40 million of the individual containers used to dispense the vaccine, according to a Reuters story.In LPOSD, not everyone on PHD’s priority list has received a flu shot because of the shortage. Locally, those children and adults who have chosen to get the nasal vaccine have not had a problem getting immunized.That is not the case, however, with those signed up to receive the shot. Some people have opted not to get the oral vaccine because of concerns it contains a live virus. According to health officials, the amount of live virus in the dose is so weak that it cannot cause the flu, but it does allow the body to develop immunity against H1N1.In fact, an immunization clinic set for Nov. 5 at Sandpoint High School has been delayed until Dec. 7 because of the shortsge, according to the Daily Bulletin, that is sent daily via e-mail from the high school.The clinics, which started in the district’s schools Oct. 22, intially were planned to immunize all district students, staff and the parents of students.However, plans changed as the anticipated number of doses did not materialize. Parents were the first to be taken off the list.Panhandle Health has added several additional clinics for LPOSD, including one on Thursday and two others on Nov. 10 and 11. However, those clinics are for people who have submitted permission forms.