Nationwide delays in the production of H1N1 vaccine have trickled down to the University and the Charlottesville-Albemarle region, where most students and residents are still awaiting vaccination.
"The manufacturing process is a little slower than anticipated and is taking a longer period of time," Virginia Department of Health spokesperson Cheryle Rodriguez said. As a result of these delays, only 420 Nursing and Medical students, who treat patients in the Health System, have received vaccinations, Student Health Director James Turner said, adding that no timeline has been established for when the rest of the student body will be vaccinated. The first doses should hopefully arrive by mid-November, he said, but this date is not definite and is subject to change.
The Virginia Department of Health has received 500,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine since it has become available, Rodriguez said. Officials have distributed half of these doses to private health providers, and the other half went to local health districts, she said.
Despite the delays, she said, "we're still able to vaccinate people and we're still moving forward on that."
The Thomas Jefferson Health District is managing the distribution of vaccine in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Region, District Director Lilian Peake said. The District received a large initial shipment, she said, and officials therefore administered doses to 11,000 people. But since then, production delays have hampered the District's ability to distribute vaccinations.
"After that initial shipment, we heard from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the manufacturers that there was going to be a delay, so unfortunately we had to slow down how it was being distributed," she said.
The delays in production have impeded the vaccination of students in Charlottesville Schools, Peake said. Out of Charlottesville city's nine schools, the focus has been placed on the system's elementary schools, she said, as younger children tend to be in closer contact with one another and thus spread communicable diseases more rapidly than other groups.
Five of Charlottesville's six K-4 lower elementary schools have vaccinated students on a voluntary basis, said Beth Baptist, director of special education and student services. The sixth school, Venable, will hold a vaccination clinic tomorrow. Clinics for Charlottesville's three remaining upper elementary, middle and high schools have been postponed because of production delays.
"Just as soon as the Health Department gets the vaccine, we will schedule them," she said.
Eight thousand doses have been administered in schools within the Thomas Jefferson Health District, Peake said, and 60 to 70 percent of parents have signed consent forms allowing their students to receive the vaccinations.
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