600 armed against H1N1 in Selinsgrove

By Marcia Moore
The Daily Item

November 12, 2009 12:25 am

— SELINSGROVE — A brutal bout with the seasonal flu a few years ago prompted Selinsgrove Area High School student Jon Bixler to get vaccinated against H1N1 Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t want to get that sick again,” he said as he walked into the H1N1 vaccination clinic offered at the middle school.
More than 600 district students received the vaccine during a 10-hour clinic staffed by school nurses and volunteers.
Selinsgrove is among the first schools in the Valley to vaccinate students against H1N1 because officials were quick to request the medicine from the state Department of Health, said Chuck Longwell, high school assistant principal.
Longwell credited school nurses Melissa Bechtel and Melinda Spriggle with coordinating the clinic.
The district received 1,500 doses of the vaccine and 2,000 doses of nasal spray to distribute, with some of the younger students requiring two doses over a three-week period.
Superintendent Frederick Johnson said the school district had no say in how many doses it would get, and received fewer than the 4,000 doses requested for its 2,700 student population.
Many turned out for the vaccination Wednesday, a day off from school for students in observance of Veterans Day.
“About 150 people were here at 9 a.m. and we’re getting about 100 people an hour,” Longwell said in the early afternoon.
Johnson on Wednesday night said nurses and volunteers had distributed more than 600 vaccines by 4 p.m. The clinic ended at 8.
As of Tuesday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had allocated more than 1.3 million doses of the swine flu vaccine in Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Health.
The vaccine has been distributed to 1,076 certified providers in the state, including schools, pediatricians, family health practitioners, obstetricians and hospitals that agreed to target people most vulnerable to complications from the H1N1 virus.
That includes pregnant women, medical providers and the young.
Other Valley schools are planning to offer the H1N1 vaccine as soon as they receive the doses.
The Danville Area School District has a clinic scheduled from 4 to 7 tonight at Liberty-Valley Intermediate School.
Milton Area School District sent letters to parents Wednesday informing them that the vaccine will be available on or about Nov. 24.
A survey of other Valley schools indicated that Lewisburg and Shikellamy officials have not yet received word when the vaccine will be available to them, but intend to offer it as soon as possible.
Longwell, the Selinsgrove High assistant principal, said if any vaccines are left over following Wednesday’s clinic, the school may make it available to teachers.
Johnson, Selinsgrove’s superintendent, said the clinic was designed for enrolled students.
“I think it’s a personal choice, but I would not discourage anyone from getting the vaccine,” Johnson said.
Tony Bogetti, the father of two students who were vaccinated at the school’s clinic, said he would prefer if teachers were encouraged to get it just as medical workers are.
“Teachers probably should be inoculated,” he said.
The state is encouraging people between the ages of 5 and 24 to get the vaccine, said Stacey Witalek, a state Department of Health spokeswoman.
Local health officials said Friday that there have been about 7,600 confirmed cases of swine flu. Geisinger Medical Center and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center have seen 1,300 patients in October.
Statewide, 4 percent of swine flu patients ended up in the hospital, while Geisinger is reporting a hospitalization rate of between 3 and 4 percent.
“We don’t know when it’s going to peak,” Witalek said of the H1N1 virus. “We’re still seeing a tremendous amount of influenza. There’s more confirmed cases of this year than any other year since we started tracking it in 2003.”
Johnson applauded school staff with handling thousands of vaccination doses, planning and setting up the on-site clinic.
The one glitch was the three-hour wait parents and students had to endure. As a result of a high turnout in the morning, many people had to bide their time in the gymnasium or hallway after registering for the vaccine before they could receive it.
“I apologize to anyone who had to wait, but this has been an unusual circumstance,” Johnson said.

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