Injectable vaccinations against the novel 2009 H1N1 virus have begun arriving in Pima County and providers are administering it to those at highest risk.Tucson Medical Center, which has nearly 3,200 employees, received 200 doses of the injectable form of the vaccine this week and is prioritizing the shots for the hospital’s clinical staff, beginning with the emergency department, spokeswoman Julia Strange said Wednesday.
Similarly, University Medical Center received a small shipment of vaccines for its health care workers Wednesday morning, spokeswoman Katie Riley said.
Some pediatricians offices also have received injectable doses of the vaccine, said Kathy Rucker, a registered nurse who oversees health services for the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), which is Southern Arizona’s largest school district.
Providers had to place orders with the state in order to receive doses, which are slowly arriving around the state. The county received 9,000 doses of the live nasal spray vaccine against H1N1 last week and is holding free clinics to administer it to targeted at-risk populations.
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The biggest problem with the nasal spray vaccine is that since it’s a live virus, it’s not recommended for two of the highest-risk groups — pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions. Those populations are advised to get an injectable H1N1 killed-virus vaccine as soon as it’s available.
In the meantime, local emergency rooms are already reporting larger patient volumes due to people reporting H1N1 symptoms. And TUSD’s absentee rate is 10 percent — about double the rate it was at this time last year, Rucker said.
“It’s 10 percent across the district. Some schools are as high as 20 to 27 percent,” Rucker said. “But I don’t think we’re anywhere near to closing entire schools.”
Rucker said district officials are carefully monitoring students with chronic health conditions, including taking their temperatures at least twice per week, and will consider closing selected special education classrooms with absentee rates get as high as 40 percent.
She’s also urging parents to be on the alert for relapses in illness — some children are coming down with H1N1 and then getting sick again with a bacterial infection that requires antibiotics, she said.
“The other emphasis is that we have to get it through the heads of our adult employees that if you are sick you need to stay home,” Rucker said. “We need to be responsible about that.”
Rucker, who has been with TUSD for 23 years, said the current novel H1N1 outbreak is “unprecedented” in her experience.
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