The Boone County Health Department is still administering the H1N1 (swine) flu vaccine. At this time the target groups continue to be Health Care Providers, care givers of children under the age of 6 months, children ages 6 months to 24 years and pregnant women. We have also just added those persons ages 25 – 64 with chronic health care problems. This includes diabetes, asthma, cardiac problems, cancer or previous chemotherapy, or anyone with an immune deficiency. We hope to be able to open up the vaccine to all citizens later in the month. The Health Department continues to follow the CDC and Bureau for Public Health’s guidelines.

Recently we have heard of an e-mail scam going around that states that it is from the CDC. The CDC does not require any registration on the Internet to receive a vaccine and any e-mail suggesting it does, is a fake that is looking for personal information that can be exploited illegally.

Over the past few weeks, flu-related hospitalizations and deaths have declined but the numbers are still higher than what is expected for this time in the year. Just because you do not hear about the H1N1 flu every day on the news, it does not mean that it has gone away. We are still encouraging citizens to get the seasonal flu vaccine and for those in the target groups to get the H1N1 vaccine.

We do not know how to predict what will happen in the weeks and months ahead. During the pandemic in 1957-1958, there was a large surge in cases at the beginning of the school year, then a waning of cases. In December, January and February, there was a big increase in the number of people who were severely ill or who died. We do not know if this will happen again, so it is best to be prepared for this.

If you have any questions, feel free to call the Health Department at 304-369-7957.