Half Of Harford’s Schools Will Have Been Offered H1N1 Vaccine By Week’s End

Local demand for the H1N1 vaccine still outstrips supply, but by week’s end the Harford County Health Department will have offered immunizations to students at more than half of the 53 public schools in Harford County.

Currently, there are no identified outbreaks of influenza-like illness in Harford County public schools, and nearly all of the schools with previous outbreaks are expected to have received the H1N1 vaccine by Friday, December 4, 2009.

The one exception is Havre de Grace Middle School, which first reported an outbreak on October 13th and was taken off of the outbreak list on October 30, but has yet to receive an allocation of the H1N1 vaccine from the Harford County Health Department. Department spokesman Bill Wiseman said Havre de Grace MS was not overlooked, but that past outbreaks are not a factor in determining which schools will receive the vaccine. He said that allocation decisions are primarily guided by current outbreaks and by finding the closest numerical match between the available supply and all of the anticipated demand within a given school. Students must have parental consent in order to receive the H1N1 vaccine.

Wiseman said that participation rates for the H1N1 vaccine remain lower than for previous vaccination programs offering the seasonal flu vaccine.

Below is the list of schools that have received the H1N1 vaccine as of November 20, along with the number of participants and the overall population at each school.

The list does not include eight schools expected to receive the H1N1 vaccine this week: Homestead/Wakefield, Prospect Mill, William Paca/Old Post Road elementary schools and Joppatowne, Edgewood, Aberdeen, Bel Air and Patterson Mill high schools.