Hopkins Co. to get H1N1 vaccines Thursday - 14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro

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Posted by Sarah Harlan - email

HOPKINS CO., KY (WFIE) - The Hopkins County Health Department will receive its first shipment of both the nasal spray vaccine and the injection vaccine on Thursday.

Health officials have prioritized who will be getting those vaccines when they come in.

In the past week, many counties in Indiana have already received the H1N1 vaccine and are giving it to children and health care workers.

Kentucky counties are still waiting to receive the vaccine, and in Hopkins County, an initial shipment of 600 vaccines is expected Thursday.

"Of course we would like to get it all now so we can plan and prioritize for the whole county at large," Denise Baldwin, an R.N. at the Hopkins County Health Department said.

Baldwin said vaccine shipments will be delivered every three to four days.

The health department is anticipating 200 nasal spray vaccines and 400 injection vaccines, and by the beginning of next week, expect 500 more vaccines.

With limited amounts, health officials have prioritized who will receive the vaccine first.

"We are going to try and use that for health care workers that work with pregnant women and young children, especially babies," Baldwin said. 

The nasal spray can only be used with healthy people, age two to 49.

Health officials said there are multiple types of the injection vaccine, one for children under three, one for children between three and four and another for ages four and up who have illness or are pregnant.

Hopkins County will receive some of each injectable vaccine over the next week.

"Right now we are seeing more severe illness with children six months to four-years-old even in our county, so we do urge those with very young children to get them immunized as soon, as soon as we start offering it," Baldwin said.

Health department officials said they will be sending out consent forms to students next week, so when more of the vaccine becomes available school nurses can administer the shots.

Health officials said larger distributions of the vaccine will come at the end of October into early November.

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