Current levels of flulike illnesses across the state compare to the peak of a bad flu season, Dr. Cathy Slemp, the state health officer, said Monday.
Supplies of H1N1 vaccines are currently targeted for five higher-risk groups — pregnant women, health care workers, caregivers of children younger than 6 months old, people ages 6 months to 24 years, and people ages 25 to 64 with underlying health risks.
“As much as we would like to have enough vaccine to cover all (of them) at the moment, we don’t,” Slemp said. “This is the beginning of a many week, many month effort.”
Those groups comprise about half of the state’s 1.8 million residents, but there’s only enough vaccine to cover up to 5 percent of the population, Slemp said.
Distribution of the H1N1 vaccine is based on population and the existence of health care hubs because they offer, for instance, referral clinics that might see more higher-risk patients, Slemp said. Most vaccines are being shipped to public health departments, but eventually more private clinics will receive them.
Five deaths in West Virginia have been attributed to swine flu. Four of them occurred in Cabell County and the fifth in Wood County.
Slemp said President Barack Obama’s declaration of a health emergency over the weekend give hospitals and health professionals more leeway from federal regulations to respond to the illness.
“It doesn’t change a thing right now,” Slemp said. “It just gets in place the ability to waive some of the (rules) that might get in the way of a health care system treating and triaging large numbers of patients effectively.”
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