We have received our next shipment of H1N1 vaccine.  This batch is for infants and toddlers, younger than their 3rd birthday; it’s a shot, “without preservative.”  I’ll offer it to infants and kids scheduled for their regular checkups, but you may call for an appointment just for the flu shot.

We’ve only received 100 doses of the shot for infants and toddlers so far.  We hope to have further shipments soon, so that we can vaccinate everybody, but it’s possible we’ll run out temporarily.  Remember that you need 2 doses (at least 3 weeks apart) for the best immunity (estimated at 85%), but the first shot gives some useful protection (estimated at 75%).  So we’ll try to give everybody the first dose before we start giving boosters.  Once we have received enough vaccine, we’ll start administering the boosters.

We have also received a second shipment of the H1N1 shot for older kids (with preservative).  So now we have enough H1N1 vaccine to vaccinate all our high-risk patients for their first vaccine.  If your child has asthma (or other high risk illness), you should be on our schedule now to receive the first dose.  I’ll post a note here when we have enough for boosters.  We now have enough seasonal flu vaccine for all our patients as well; all kids should be given both.

To give you some perspective, Delaware Modern Pediatrics has received only 300 of the 2300 doses of H1N1 we ordered for our patients.  Obviously, supplies are still tight.  This is not the fault of the Division of Public Health; the manufacturing process for flu vaccine is antiquated and slow.  We have similar supply problems with the seasonal flu vaccine in most years (though not this year); but the shortages haven’t been as noticeable because demand for flu shots has never been this high.

Should you have your kids vaccinated through school?  Yes, absolutely, if you can!  The only exception is for kids with asthma (or other serious underlying disease) who are being offered only the nasal flu vaccine at school; those patients should be given the injection (available through our office for our current patients).