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Thursday, November 19, 2009
State Expands H1N1 Vaccine List
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
The state expanded the list of New Mexicans who should receive the H1N1 vaccine to include an estimated 180,000 adults ages 19 to 65 with chronic medical conditions.
Seven more New Mexicans died in the seven-day period ending Wednesday, including a 12-year-old Doña Ana County boy with chronic health conditions, the New Mexico Department of Health said.
The new deaths bring to 36 the number of New Mexicans who have died of confirmed cases of swine flu since April. Those deaths include eight children.
Other swine-flu deaths announced Wednesday include four Bernalillo County residents, all with chronic medical conditions, including a 57-year-old man, a 62-year-old man, a 58-year-old man, and a 43-year-old woman.
New deaths also include a 29-year-old Doña Ana County woman without chronic health conditions and a 52-year-old Eddy County man with chronic conditions.
Flu activity in the state continued to taper off during the past week, when flu patients accounted for 5.8 percent of those seeking medical care, down from 6.2 percent the previous week.
Health officials still have no estimate when the state will have enough vaccine to target healthy kids and young adults ages 5 to 24. That group includes at least 500,000 New Mexicans.
"We're starting to plan how we're going to roll (H1N1 vaccinations) out through schools," said Maggi Gallaher, who oversees the New Mexico Department of Health's vaccination program. "We just don't have enough vaccine right now to cover that group."
School-based vaccination clinics must wait until manufacturers provide the state with substantial supplies of vaccine, preferably nasal FluMist, she said.
The state on Wednesday had ordered 283,430 doses of swine flu vaccine, most of which had been distributed to medical providers.
Targeted to receive vaccine
The New Mexico Department of Health has added adults with chronic health conditions ages 19 to 65 to those already targeted to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine.
People with certain medical conditions are considered at higher risk for complications from flu. Those are:
n Chronic pulmonary disease including asthma; cardiovascular disease; diseases of the kidney, liver or blood, including sickle cell disease;
n Neurologic; neuromuscular or metabolic disorders, including diabetes;
n Weakened immune systems; and people younger than 19 years of age receiving long-term aspirin therapy.
People in target groups should call their medical providers or a public health office and ask about H1N1 vaccine availability.
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