Thousands in SD vaccinated against swine flu

More than 16,000 San Diego County residents were vaccinated against the swine flu over the weekend, it was reported Monday.

Nearly 6,890 were vaccinated Saturday and another 9,578 on Sunday, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. People stood in line at seven immunization clinics to receive their vaccinations, the newspaper reported.

Vaccines were only given to children and young adults through age 24, health care workers, pregnant women and people with chronic health issues.

County health officials said people who do not fall in those categories will be able to get the vaccine to ward off the H1N1 virus as more doses become available.

Roughly 102,000 doses arrived in the county Friday. About 300,000 more vaccine doses are expected within the next two weeks.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, said there should be enough vaccine for everybody in the next two to three months. The vaccine is coming in both injectable and nasal FluMist form.

A list of county-run clinics offering the vaccine is available online at www.sdiz.org or by calling 211.

Since June, 25 San Diego County residents have died from swine flu, according to the county Health and Human Services Agency. The latest death, reported Wednesday, involved a 31-year-old woman with pre-existing medical conditions, the agency reported.

In addition, three people have died from swine flu while visiting San Diego this year. They are not included in local statistics but are counted in their hometowns, according to the HHSA.

Nearly 350 people have been hospitalized due to the virus, the agency reported.

Tags: children, H1N1, san diego county, SDNN, Swine flu, vaccinated, women

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:53 am and is filed under Health, Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.