Health officials will send out swine flu vaccines across Kentucky this week, and Western officials hope the vaccines will land on campus soon after.
Priority for the H1N1 vaccine lies first with health care workers, but Western officials hope to get the vaccine by the end of October, said Donna Brosche, manager of Western’s clinical nurse services.
Western has requested 2,000 adult doses and 500 pediatric doses of the vaccine, Health Services Director Libby Greaney said. The vaccines are expected to run out quickly.
“Our job is to make sure we can get the biggest supply of the vaccine and follow the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines on who receives first priority,” Greaney said.
There should be an increase in the vaccine’s availability within the month, said Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Family Services.
Health Services’ Web site will announce when the vaccine arrives and becomes available to students, Brosche said. They’ll also send out e-mails and announcements about the vaccine’s arrival.
The CDC gave Kentucky 24,300 doses of the vaccine, Bond said.
A nasal spray form of the vaccine comes out this week, and an injection form will follow it within the next week, she said.
Western will administer the injection form only because Health Services doesn’t have a refrigerator that can keep the nasal spray vaccine at its required temperature, Greaney said.
The vaccine is paid for by the federal government, so there won’t be any cost to students or faculty, she said.
Students won’t be required to get the vaccine, but Greaney said she recommends it like she would recommend getting the seasonal flu vaccine.
So far, 500 students and faculty on campus have been tested for swine flu, and 123 are assumed to have it, Greaney said.
When a person tests positive for Flu A instead of the seasonal flu, Western health officals assume that person has swine flu.
For more information regarding the H1N1 Flu Vaccine:
Western Kentucky Health Services
.