The effort to vaccinate at-risk groups against the swine flu is now reaching into Northland schools with the Clay County Public Health Center receiving sufficient dosages to immunize large groups of students.

Vaccinations against H1N1 for other higher risk groups are also continuing at large public clinics and through private medical practices.

At two of the recent clinics, health center personnel vaccinated more than 2,500 area residents.

“We distributed 451 doses at our clinic at Antioch Bible Baptist and 2,100 doses at Pleasant Valley Baptist,” said Jodee Fredrick, division director of Community Health Promotion and Planning.

Fredrick said there will be three more clinics in December.

Fredrick said parents also need to remember that children need to have a second dose of the vaccine, 28 days after receiving their first dosage.

“That’s proving to be very effective,” she said.

The overall effort appears to be making a difference.

Local hospitals have reported slight drops in incidents with influenza like symptoms.

Fredrick is hopeful that trend continues but remains cautious, knowing complacency could set in on the part of the public.

“There’s always a chance of that happening,” she conceded.

To keep that from occurring, the health center and private providers will continue the immunization effort.

Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Fredrick said the point has now been reached in the process where they are not only immunizing young people, pregnant women, caregivers for infants and health care workers, but they are also providing immunizations for 25 to 64 year olds with chronic health conditions.

She said as this occurs the health center is also urging that people 65 and older have a pneumonia shot and that people with certain high risk conditions from 2 to 64 also be vaccinated.

“Coverage among this group is low and this group may be more likely to develop secondary bacterial pneumonia after an influenza infection,” according to a CDC health advisory.

That finding comes from current data.

“Some of the CDC’s Active Bacterial Core surveillance sites have seen greater than expected numbers of cases of invasive pneumococcal disease coincident with increases in influenza-associated hospitalizations,” the health advisory said.

Also cited was the history of influenza predisposing people to developing bacterial community-acquired pneumonia in past pandemics.

ONLINE

For additional information on H1N1, including clinics, visit www.clayhealth.com.

Senior writer Mark Johnson can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .