Kanawha County's first school-based swine flu clinic will be held at Elk Elementary Center on Tuesday, according to the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County's first school-based swine flu clinic will be held at Elk Elementary Center on Tuesday, according to the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health.
Wednesday the clinics will be held at Bridge and Clendenin elementaries.
The goal is for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to vaccinate an entire elementary school and the corresponding day-care and pre-schools in the area in one day before moving on to the next location.
"We're going to try to keep going as quickly as we have vaccine available," said chief health officer Dr. Rahul Gupta. "We have 40,000 shots we need to do."
About 28,500 students are enrolled in 46 elementary schools, 14 middle schools and eight high schools in Kanawha County. That number does not include private schools.
Children under 10 must get two doses of the swine flu vaccine, spaced four weeks apart. After the second shot, children might have to wait two weeks before their immunity to the swine flu builds up.
"That's one of the reasons why starting early is so important," Gupta said.
Some Kanawha schools already have seen mini-outbreaks of the virus where large numbers of students are out sick.
But students who have already been diagnosed with swine flu shouldn't necessarily pass on the vaccine, Gupta said.
He said students who had test results that were PCR-positive -- which refers to a highly sensitive test that detects tiny amounts of infectious material -- do not need to get the vaccine.
But if someone tested positive after having a nasal swab, they should still consider getting the vaccine, he said. Nasal swabs are not nearly as accurate as the PCR test and have a large margin of error for diagnosis, he said.
The county has seen a spike in flu cases since schools opened, which is unusual for this time of year but not unexpected, Gupta said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County's first school-based swine flu clinic will be held at Elk Elementary Center on Tuesday, according to the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health.
Wednesday the clinics will be held at Bridge and Clendenin elementaries.
The goal is for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to vaccinate an entire elementary school and the corresponding day-care and pre-schools in the area in one day before moving on to the next location.
"We're going to try to keep going as quickly as we have vaccine available," said chief health officer Dr. Rahul Gupta. "We have 40,000 shots we need to do."
About 28,500 students are enrolled in 46 elementary schools, 14 middle schools and eight high schools in Kanawha County. That number does not include private schools.
Children under 10 must get two doses of the swine flu vaccine, spaced four weeks apart. After the second shot, children might have to wait two weeks before their immunity to the swine flu builds up.
"That's one of the reasons why starting early is so important," Gupta said.
Some Kanawha schools already have seen mini-outbreaks of the virus where large numbers of students are out sick.
But students who have already been diagnosed with swine flu shouldn't necessarily pass on the vaccine, Gupta said.
He said students who had test results that were PCR-positive -- which refers to a highly sensitive test that detects tiny amounts of infectious material -- do not need to get the vaccine.
But if someone tested positive after having a nasal swab, they should still consider getting the vaccine, he said. Nasal swabs are not nearly as accurate as the PCR test and have a large margin of error for diagnosis, he said.
The county has seen a spike in flu cases since schools opened, which is unusual for this time of year but not unexpected, Gupta said.
Most of the county's limited supply of swine flu vaccine has gone to the more than 100 pre-registered providers across the county, said Janet Briscoe, the health department's director of epidemiology and clinic services.
Emergency and health care workers, pregnant women and young people aged 6 months to 24 years who have underlying or serious health complications have been targeted for the vaccine. The health department has already held clinics for paramedics and pregnant women.
"On a certain day of the week, we'll also be holding a clinic for children who have chronic health conditions that will be more likely to get the flu," Gupta said.
In addition to swine flu clinics, the health department also has given more than 11,000 seasonal flu shots since the middle of September, he said.
"That's at least 500 shots a day for 24 days," he said.
The county is out of seasonal flu vaccine. Gupta's not sure if they'll get any more; if they do, it probably won't be until late November.
Also Thursday:
| Kanawha County Manager Brent Pauley said the county is trying to work out a deal with the health board to require all county employees and their spouses without a primary-care physician to get a mandatory yearly physical from the health department. Employees also would have to go to one follow-up visit to talk about any potential health problems.
"It's about preventive measures," Pauley said. The proposed physical program would be a partnership with primary-care doctors, not a replacement program, he said.
| Kerry 'Paco' Ellison, owner of the Blackhawk Saloon in Charleston, asked the health board to pass a law to make shaking hands, illegal to help prevent the spread of the swine flu -- apparently a tongue-in-cheek continuation of his fight with the board over the county's smoking ban.
Clad in a shirt that said "For health's sake, don't shake!" Ellison said that 30 percent of people have a small amount of E. coli bacteria on their hands and that the "barbaric and unsanitary habit" is a quick way to spread flu-causing germs.
In addition, Ellison said that many people do not wash their hands after using the bathroom. He said banning hand shaking is "a rational and logical thing for the health department to do."
Reach Kathryn Gregory at kathr...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5119.
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Evidence-based science shows, again and again, that when it comes to preventing infectious diseases, antibodies on their own cannot, and do not, equal immunity.
For example, years of scientific research, assembled by researcher Judy Wilyman, have demonstrated how ineffective the whooping cough vaccination really is, and why it is nothing short of madness to continue to claim that whooping cough vaccination will lead to a decline in this disease.
Another example is the PhD thesis of a researcher from Tasmania named Arlette Mercae. Her thesis is an in-depth look at the way in which assumptions made about vaccine-induced immunity have led to a vaccination policy that is not based in science, ignores research that disagrees with the accepted premise that vaccines induce immunity, and, by pushing ahead with more and more vaccines, may be doing untold d
Unfortunately, for everyone out there who believes that state health officials are reliable sources of information, this is a flat out lie.
So let’s put an end to this worn-out arbitrary catch-phrase used by people who either don’t know better, or don’t want YOU to know better.
Writing for GenerationRescue.org, Teresa Binstock, a researcher in Developmental & Behavioral Neuroanatomy, also addresses this fallacy.
“Once again, a highly placed public figure has presented a misleading or inaccurate statement wherein thimerosal is erroneously described as harmless,” she writes, and proceeds to list some of the most recent studies showing the exact opposite of what the Health Secretary puts out as “truth.”