BISD offers free flu shots
Brownsville Independent School District will offer free seasonal flu and H1N1 flu vaccines to students today at its Central Administration Building at 708 Palm Blvd.
All of the vaccine is of the FluMist nasal spray kind and will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis from 4-7 p.m. in the building’s cafeteria.
Cameron County Health and Human Services has been working with school districts in the area to better reach healthy school children, the target population for the vaccine, said Esmeralda Guajardo, assistant health administrator for the health department. About half of the 8,400 doses that arrived in the county last week went to school districts.
“We are trying to get the vaccines closer to home,” Guajardo said. “Out of the (doses that arrived) last week, 5,200 were nasal spray and since it is mostly for children, it is better to work with the school districts.”
FluMist cannot be administered to other flu high-risk groups, such as pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses.
School districts in Harlingen, San Benito, Los Fresnos, La Feria, Point Isabel, Rio Hondo, Santa Rosa and Santa Maria began administering 1,689 doses of the H1N1 FluMist vaccine Monday and had given out about 85 percent of the amount by Tuesday afternoon.
BISD will give out 2,000 doses of the H1N1 flu nasal spray today and will also have doses of the seasonal flu vaccine available. But children cannot take both types of nasal flu spray today because they would be getting too much virus at one time and could experience serious flu-like symptoms, said Yvette Ortega, family nurse practitioner and the clinical coordinator for the Harlingen Public Health Center.
“There must be a two-week waiting period between the doses for the body to build antibodies,” she said.
Children 9 years old and under who take the H1N1 flu vaccine also need to take a booster shot 28 days later for the vaccine to be effective. Enough doses should be available for children to take the vaccine again next month because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has allocated enough of the supply to the county, Ortega said.
Health officials at the state and county level are counting the number of children who need to take two doses of the vaccine to be prepared when more supplies arrive next month, Ortega said.
BISD will distribute the vaccines as long as supplies last and is planning on additional vaccine distributions as more supplies arrive, BISD spokeswoman Drue Brown said.
The county’s four clinics in Brownsville, Harlingen, San Benito and Port Isabel are also administering the H1N1 flu vaccine. Each clinic has about 150 doses of the H1N1 vaccine in nasal spray and injection form, Guajardo said.
Although demand for the H1N1 vaccine is there, the county’s health clinics have not seen the long lines and problems other parts of the state have dealt with, Guajardo said.
“People are generally understanding that we have high-risk groups we have to deal with first,” she said.
What: Free seasonal flu and H1N1 flu vaccines clinic
When: Today from 4-7 p.m.
Where: BISD Central Administration Building at 708 Palm Blvd.
Description: 2,000 of the FluMist nasal spray vaccination will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis. The season flu vaccine will also be administered. FluMist cannot be administered to other flu high-risk groups, such as pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses. Children cannot take both types of nasal flu spray today because they would be getting too much virus at one time and could experience serious flu-like symptoms.
