Staff Writer
CARIBOU — While President Obama recently proclaimed January 10 through 16 as National Influenza Vaccination Week, vaccination importance and urgency has been at the forefront of many Aroostook minds, particularly at Cary Medical Center.
Approximately 1,432 students of Caribou, Caswell, Connor, Fort Fairfield, Limestone, the Loring Job Corps Center, the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, New Sweden, Sinclair and Van Buren — even home-schooled students —received their H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccinations before the start of the New Year, which was no small task considering that every child under 9 years old was administered the two doses of the vaccination a month apart.
“The seasonal flu strikes people above a certain age, while H1N1 hits hardest on individuals below a certain age,” explained Ann King, infection control officer and registered nurse at CMC. “Most of the problems with H1N1 have occurred in individuals 27 and under.”
The availability of the H1N1 vaccine has recently increased, which has allowed the vaccine to become obtainable for the general public.
“I encourage all Americans to observe this week by getting the H1N1 flu vaccine if they have not yet done so, and by asking their families, friends, and co-workers to do the same,” President Obama stated in the proclamation.
The availability of the vaccination is welcomed news to many who were ineligible to receive the vaccination when supplies were very limited.
According to Jason Tremblay, Dr. P.H., director of pharmacy at CMC, “When the manufacture started manufacturing the H1N1 vaccination for the state, it interrupted the production of the seasonal flu vaccination and we saw a lot of delay in the seasonal flu vaccination as well as the H1N1 flu vaccination,” he explained, adding that the production delays led to the decision by the United States Center of Disease Control and the Maine Center of Disease Control to set tiers for priority groups to receive the H1N1 vaccine.
Employees have administered over 2,600 H1N1 vaccinations currently, diligently traveling to each school multiple times to vaccinate youths. King said that some people even showed up at her office for the vaccination.
CMC has recently received another shipment of the vaccination and is in the process of scheduling various means of dispersal, including public clinics.
While many pregnant women (who are at the highest risk) have received the vaccine along with a large number of children, adults in their early-to-mid-20s tend not to regularly visit their doctor and, resultantly, vaccine administration to the group can be difficult.
“We’re really encouraging people in the community with any type of lung issues to obtain the vaccination, even if the issues are self-inflicted like smoking,” King said.
“Pandemics (such as H1N1) tend to occur in two-year cycles and during that cycle there are waves of infection,” she added. “Right now, we’re kind of in a down wave and we don’t know if that it a natural down or because we’ve immunized a whole lot of people.”
Whether the current decrease of the number of patients infected with the H1N1 virus is natural or artificially decreased through the number of vaccinated individuals, what goes down must come up in the cyclical nature of a pandemic.
“Based on past pandemic trends, we are expecting an increased wave of infection in the spring,” cautioned King.
Generally, those infected with H1N1 have been able to weather the illness out in the comfort of their own homes.
The adoption of preventative precautions — thoroughly washing hands, conscientious sneezing, infection awareness — may help reduce the amount of H1N1 and seasonal flu cases.
“I’ve had a lot of employers in town call me when they’re questioning when or not their employees should stay at home and the message of hand-washing and sneezing etiquette has gotten out,” King added.
