While the county’s supply of seasonal flu vaccine has been exhausted for the year, the Richmond County Health Department began administering H1N1 vaccine on school campuses Thursday.

Richmond County Health Director Dr. Tommy Jarrell said he isn’t aware of anywhere for people to get seasonal flu vaccine.

“We can’t get any more, there’s none available to buy,” he said Thursday. “We’ve been out for about a month. Of course, not everyone in the county has been out for a month. There have been some private providers who had some, but they’re running out now.”

FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Spokesperson Emily Sloan said the hospital ran out at the beginning of the week.

Sandhills Regional Medical Center was also contacted, but could not be reached at press time.

“We don’t have anymore seasonal flu shots, but additional doses are on back order,” Sloan said. “We don’t yet know the date of when they will get here.”

Jarrell said the health department ordered 2,000 doses during the spring of this year, before H1N1 reared its ugly head.

“Last year and the year before that we ordered 2,000 doses, and we didn’t give them all out,” he continued. “We had to throw some away, but this year the demand was so much higher because of H1N1.”

He said the health department has been fielding “dozens and dozens of calls a day” from people who are trying to find flu shots of both varieties.

“The focus has shifted to H1N1, and unless some more seasonal vaccine comes in that we don’t know about, there won’t be anymore available this year,” Jarrell said.

The health department has been receiving small amounts of the H1N1 vaccine every week, he said, but these are being used to serve the populations at the highest risk of infection and complications from infection.

That includes pregnant women, people under 25 years of age, caregivers of children under six months old and emergency medical personnel.

The health department administered a large amount of its 400 doses of H1N1 vaccine it received this week at four of the county’s schools .

At Cordova Elementary, Richmond County Schools Lead Nurse Diane Lamont said school and health department nurses were prepared to administer the vaccines.

“We have a lot of experience doing this,” she said. “We have done Hepatitis B clinics in the schools and TDAP clinics in the schools before, so this will be the third round of immunization clinics we’ve offered within the school system.”

She said about a third to a quarter of the students in the county have signed up to receive H1N1 vaccine.

“We’re finding that there’s been participation with the elementary schools,” Lamont continued. “My school is Fairview Heights, and about a third of the students there signed up.”

Jarrell pointed out that just because students haven’t signed up for the vaccine clinics at school doesn’t mean they’re not getting vaccinated.

“It may be that their parents don’t want them to get the flu shot, or it may be that they want to take them themselves.”

Cordova School Nurse Nikki High pointed out that while their have been immunization in the clinics previously, these clinics are different because of the ages of the patients.

“We did the TDAP for the first time last year, but the TDAP is for fifth graders,” High said. “This is the first time we’ve ever done something school-wide. My biggest concern is our younger ones, that they’re going to be upset and scared, and maybe even upset the older ones.”

She said one of the top priorities would be keeping the children calm as they wait in line, get the shot and go through a 20-minute observation period afterward.

Lamont said the early onset of the flu season due to H1N1 has caused a number of absences in the schools this year.

“Not so much over the last two or three weeks, though,” she said. “But over the last five days we’ve been sending children home with high fevers and flu-like symptoms. So, this is a good time for them to take advantage of this.”

She explained the cycle of pandemic communicable diseases in a population usually features “lulls,” then “spikes of activity.”

Jarrell said the health department is hoping to finish the immunization clinics at all the schools by the end of the month.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.