Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center reports 22 percent of county immunized against H1N1

Despite a shaky start in administering the H1N1 influenza vaccine to the public last fall, the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center said it has immunized 22 percent of the county's population through December.

Public health staff put in more than 2,400 hours from October to December administering 12,622 doses to the public. With the help of other community health care providers, who immunized 3,060 people, county health officials have given out a total of 15,682 doses of the H1N1 vaccine.

Charlotte Craig, county public health director, and Jane Wernsman, assistant director, released the figures Thursday at a meeting of the Infectious Disease Task Force at the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center.

"I have to believe, except for St. Louis, Kansas City and maybe Springfield, I think we probably have been the most proactive health department because of who's sitting in this room," Craig said.

The center received its first 400 doses of the vaccine, in the form of flu mist, in October. The flu mist can only be give to people ages 2 to 49 who have no underlying health conditions, Wernsman said, which wasn't enough to kick off the H1N1 vaccine distribution procedure as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Once additional doses were received the priority groups began to get vaccinated and public health was able to go into the county schools and immunize students.

In 30 clinic days, Wernsman said they were able to administer 7,007 total doses of the H1N1 vaccine to school-aged children, or 44 percent of the student population in Cape Girardeau County.

"Somewhere there was a national average, if you've reached 40 percent of your student population they consider that good. I think we did an excellent job," she said.

Deena Ring, director of special services for the Cape Girardeau School District, said attendance in the district has been helped by the vaccinations.

"There's never been any talk about closing schools. We're still not experiencing anything out of the ordinary as far as absenteeism," Ring said.

'Underestimations'

Through December, 764 cases of Type A influenza in Cape Girardeau County have been confirmed, seven of which were proven to be the H1N1 strain. Infectious disease physician and task force member Matt Shoemaker said many more cases may have been H1N1 but at the end of October Missouri health personnel authorized county public health to quit sending samples for routine testing.

"These numbers are probably vast underestimations of what the true burden of this disease has had on the community," Shoemaker said. "You can expect that number was really around 2,000 or more ... plus the people that didn't seek medical care."

Saint Francis Medical Center registered nurse Gayla Tripp said nurses and doctors have been working closely with emergency room personnel to keep in place a smooth operation while people were seeking vaccinations and medical care in connection with H1N1.

Tripp reported at Saint Francis 330 people tested positive for Type A influenza from various counties.

At Southeast Missouri Hospital, Dr. Jim Hendrickson said 200 to 300 of the staff were vaccinated and the hospital is offering the vaccine to patients. Hendrickson said the hospital has not had a lot of patient requests for the H1N1 vaccine.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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