Doses of AU’s first shipment of H1N1 vaccine will be available at a vaccination clinic this Friday, Oct. 20 at 9 a.m. on the first floor of the Mary Graydon Center.
The shipment includes 1,000 doses allocated to AU by the District of Columbia Department of Health that will be administered on a first-come-first-serve basis to priority groups, including people six-months-old to 24-years-old, according to a memorandum distributed campus-wide Wednesday night.
This group is at risk because those who are six months through 18 years old tend to be in close contact with each other at schools, where disease spreads easily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, people who are 19- to 24-years-old are at risk for H1N1 despite being an otherwise healthy population because they are a particularly mobile group of people who live, work and study in close proximity, according to the CDC.
AU is unsure how long the supply of vaccine will last.
“We can’t predict how quickly we’ll go through it,” said AU Spokesperson Camille Lepre. “We’re expecting to receive more shipments, but we don’t have any details on that yet.”
AU had originally hoped to receive the vaccine earlier in the semester, but unforeseen delays pushed back the date of arrival.
“It is later than expected,” Lepre said.
Bruey said D.C. was “in the second shipment from the CDC to state health departments,” The Eagle reported.
At that time, the vaccine for the regular flu had already been administered on campus, and the Student Health Center was prescribing Tamiflu to “people who need it most,” Bruey told The Eagle.
The memo lists priority groups other than young, college-aged people for the vaccine, including pregnant women, caregivers for children younger than six-months-old, health care and emergency medical services providers and people from 25-years to 64-years-old who have health conditions.
The memo also asked “those aged 25-64 years with no underlying health conditions understand our need to service the above priority group first.”
You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.
