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Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will begin free H1N1 flu clinics for students Monday in the county's first effort to bring the vaccine directly to school children, who are at high risk for complications.
Six schools will offer the nasal mist or injectable vaccine Monday to children whose parents have signed consent forms. Six more schools will hold clinics each day "until we finish or run out of vaccine," said Maria Bonaiuto, school health director.
Monday's tentative schedule includes Tryon Hills Pre-K, Amay James Pre-K, Starmount Pre-K, J.H. Gunn Elementary, Hidden Valley Elementary and Billingsville Elementary.
The county Health Department has 11,500 doses of vaccine for the school-based clinics. About 5,500 of the doses came from UNC Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University, where student interest in getting vaccinated was not as high as expected.
The Health Department will temporarily stop holding clinics at its Billingsley Road and Beatties Ford Road offices after today. The department has distributed about 4,500 doses of vaccine in a week of clinics. But for now, the focus will be on schools.
"We want to have enough to go to the schools for the seven days before Thanksgiving break," said Deputy Health Director Bobby Cobb.
Six teams of 10 school-health nurses will provide vaccinations. All six freestanding CMS preschools will have vaccine clinics in the first week or two, and parents are invited to be with their children for the vaccinations. Bonaiuto said principals are helping to decide which schools go first, depending upon how many parents have returned consent forms.
"We're really concerned that those consents are not going to come back or that parents aren't going to pay attention to them," Bonaiuto said. But she said one school got 100 consent forms back the day after they were sent out.
School nurses expect to give out 250 doses per school each day, for a total of 1,500 daily. At that rate, the current supply would be gone by Thanksgiving break, which starts Nov. 25. But Cobb said he hopes more vaccine will arrive before then so school clinics can continue after the break.
The goal is to reach as many elementary schools as possible in the 22 school days before Christmas break, Bonaiuto said.
Health officials believe children under 10 will need a second vaccination four weeks later to achieve full immunity. Schools will provide some booster immunizations, or parents may get them from doctors' offices or other clinics, Cobb said.
Most of the health department's vaccine is nasal mist, which is safe for healthy children but not recommended for children with medical conditions.
Bonaiuto said she expects about a quarter of CMS students to get vaccinated in the school-based clinics.
She estimated it will take two to three months to vaccinate all the children whose parents want it. That estimate includes giving second vaccinations to the children who need them.
Some private schools are also planning their own clinics as soon as vaccine arrives.
