Health District to offer only flu nasal spray vaccine

By Mary Manning

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009 | 10:45 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Health District is offering H1N1 flu nasal spray vaccine only for the next seven to 10 days, health officials said today, because the injectable vaccine is unavailable.

The FluMist nasal spray against the novel H1N1 flu is available today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is being offered at the health district's center, 625 Shadow Lane, at the front of the building.

Health officials announced today that priority groups have been expanded to include healthy people -- and those who are not pregnant -- up to the age of 24.

In addition, priority groups who can receive the nasal spray vaccine include people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age, health care and emergency medical services personnel with direct patient contact and children and young adults between the ages of 2 and 24 years.

Pregnant women are advised not to get the H1N1 Flu Mist vaccine because it uses a live virus, which could affect fetuses, health officials said. The FluMist is also not recommended for those with underlying medical conditions because of weakened immune systems.

The health district's spokeswoman, Stephanie Bethel, said more deliveries of the injectable vaccine are expected to arrive within a week to 10 days. Until then there is an ample supply of FluMist available for people in the priority groups who wish to receive it.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this morning that the H1N1 flu virus continues to spread nationwide. A total of 46 states, including Nevada, report that the virus is "widespread," he said.

There have been "many millions of cases" of the H1N1 flu cases in the United States since the virus was first detected in April, Frieden said. Children and young adults continue to account for most of the patients.

More than 1,000 residents in the United States have died from the H1N1 flu, including 12 Clark County residents and a 13th patient from New York who was hospitalized in Las Vegas.

Since the spring, 20,000 people in the United States have been hospitalized, Frieden said.

The 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine is given free of charge with the government footing the bill, Frieden said.

For more information about receiving the available vaccines, visit the Southern Nevada Health District's Web site. There is also a helpline at (702) 759-4636.