The University Health Center is preparing to dispense vaccines for the swine flu to the wider campus community next week, including some in a novel form: a nasal spray.
The facility received its most recent shipment on Tuesday and plans to start distributing the vaccines after it receives another shipment next week. The health center has already begun vaccinating groups deemed at special risk, such as young children.
The vaccine carries risks for several groups — “pregnant women, anyone with a long-term health problem, or even those who have a severe allergy to eggs,” said Sharon Harbert, health center director of nursing.
Not all of the vaccines will be in the same form. Health center director Mike Eyster said he and his staff “never know what will come, when it will come, or what (type) it is.”
“We get what the government gives (Lane County Public Health),” Eyster said. “We had to sign a contract and follow their criteria.”
As of Thursday, Harbert said the health center had seen more than 400 cases of H1N1, and Thursday was the highest day of traffic the health center has seen yet. The center has also administered between 200 and 300 H1N1 nasal vaccines.
Though the health center’s efforts have so far focused on specific groups, Eyster said, “anybody that walks through the door and asks, any student or faculty, we will give it to them.”
— Anna Helland
H1N1 vaccine, spray available to community
Daily Emerald
October 8, 2009
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