Source: floridahealthnews.com
This coming fall could be a real nightmare for states’ health departments, as health workers will have two flus to manage–swine and the seasonal flu.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will announce today plans for providing the swine flu vaccine, free to all those who want it.
Meanwhile the Florida Department of Health and its county health units will need a lot of help from the private health system and schools, to get the vaccine to all those who want it, said Russell Eggert, Director of DOH, Division of Disease Control.
Eggert underscored the importance of these partnerships with the private physicians and other providers, given the anticipated shortfall in manpower.
It is expected that the CDC will release about 160 million doses of vaccine initially, most likely in mid-October and 1 million more each week thereafter.
Florida, based on its population is likely to receive initially 8 million doses.
It is not yet clear how many persons would be inoculated, given that it is unknown whether one shot would be sufficient for inoculation against swine flu, as is the case with the seasonal flu. The CDC is expected to make this clear shortly.
Like the seasonal flu vaccine, the inoculation program against swine flu will be voluntary. However, the CDC warns that, every flu season has the potential to cause a lot of illness, doctor’s visits, hospitalizations and deaths. They are concerned that the new swine flu virus could result in a particularly severe flu season.
The CDC is encouraging people to start to go out and get vaccinated against seasonal influenza, as soon as vaccines become available. They note that, the swine flu vaccine is not intended to replace the seasonal flu vaccine, but rather to be used along-side the seasonal flu vaccine.
