Scott County hopes to vaccinate 20 percent of county residents against H1N1 virus

BENTON, Mo. -- Scott County's health officials are looking for one out of five Scott County residents to be vaccinated against the swine flu.

Barry Cook, administrator for the Scott County Health Department, provided an update on his department's efforts during the Scott County Commission meeting Tuesday.

Cook said the federal government initially estimated 50 percent of the population would be vaccinated for the H1N1 virus.

In Scott County, "I'm going to say we'll give it to close to 20 percent of the population," Cook said. "Around 7,000 or 8,000 people, maybe."

So far, 3,465 people have received the vaccination in Scott County, Cook said, with 2,674 of those vaccinations given at the Scott County Health Department office. All H1N1 vaccines come in through the health department, Cook said.

The focus is still on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's priority groups, such as pregnant women, people who care for children younger than 6 months, emergency workers, people ages 6 months to 24 years, and people ages 24 to 64 who have chronic conditions that make them more susceptible to flu symptoms.

Cook predicted the CDC will add to the list of those who should be vaccinated by early January.

"Vaccine supplies are starting to expand a little bit," Cook said. "We plan to offer it to every school."

He said at first his department was only receiving a few hundred doses of the vaccination but expected the shipment arriving Wednesday to have about 800 doses. "We basically get a shipment every week," Cook said.

Cook predicted the swine flu vaccination will be included as part of next year's regular flu shot.

"If they had known about H1N1 a little sooner, it would have been in this year's," he said. "It's just a different strain of the flu."

Cook said the regular flu shot is always "their best guess of what flu strains are going to be out there. They don't put them all in there; they can't."