Flu season is upon us and many people have questions regarding the H1N1 vaccine. The Department of Homeland Security has recommended that the novel H1N1 flu vaccine be made available first to the following groups which are most likely to get the flu, have complications from flu, and/or play a key role in caring for people with flu (order of target groups does not indicate priority):
• Pregnant women
• Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than six months of age
• Health care and emergency medical services personnel
• All peoples six months through 24 years of age
• Persons aged 25 to 64 years of age who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza disease
Once providers meet the demand in these priority groups, vaccination is recommended for all people 25 through 64 years of age. Once demand among younger age groups has been met, providers should offer novel H1N1 flu vaccination to people 65 or older. Current studies indicate that the risk for infection among persons age 65 or older is less than the risk for younger age groups.
The types of vaccine available to Texas will change as CDC is able to release different products. This may affect the priority groups above during a given time frame. The first vaccine Texas is receiving is intranasal live attenuated influenza virus (novel H1N1 FluMist) and therefore is targeted to children 24-47 months old and the health care workers who care for that age group, because FluMist is recommended only for healthy people 2 to 49 years old who are not pregnant.
For stockpile antiviral locations in Harris County please click here. For more information on H1N1, please click here.
