There is a swine flu vaccine coming. It is expected to become available in October. Probably it will start trickling out in October but take a few more months before it is available in large supply. We have signed up to get the vaccine and provide it to our patients when it comes out. We will probably have to prioritize people to get the shots. People who are at higher risk of either getting very ill from the swine flu or at high risk of spreading it around will be towards the top of the list.

The CDC has identified groups to get the vaccine:

• Pregnant women - Pregnant women are always at high risk from the flu and this one has been particularly hard on them.  In addition, if the mom gets the shot while she is pregnant, she can pass some immunity to her baby who will be too young to get the shot till he is 6 months old.
• Healthcare workers - We are sure to be exposed and likely to spread it when we get sick.  A lot of us are bad at staying home when we are sick, not to mention that it’s hard to see patients when half the office is home sick.
• Household contacts of babies less than 6 months old - These babies can get very sick from the flu but they are too small to get the shot. Our best bet is to immunize everyone in the house so no one brings it home to him or her.
• People 6 months to 24 years old - This is a huge group of people.  Children 6 months to 5 years old are at higher risk to get very sick from the flu while 5 year olds and up are likely to spread it around.  We will probably have to give it to the young children and children with other health problems first before we get to everyone else on this list.
• People 24-65 years old with chronic medical conditions - These chonic medical conditions give this group a higher chance of getting very ill from the flu.

People over 65 are usually high on the list to get seasonal flu shots but this group has not been catching the swine flu as much as the rest of us so they did not make this list.

There has been news reports on TV raising concerns that the swine flu vaccine is untested and dangerous. Like most vaccine stories on TV this is not accurate. It is true that the swine flu vaccine is not going to be as thoroughly tested as usual with flu shots. That would take several more months. The federal agencies involved have decided that they would get the vaccine to the people as soon as possible and bypass some of that. However, the swine flu vaccine is made the same way that the seasonal flu shots have been made for many years. It is not true that it is an untested, experimental vaccine. Testing and trials have been going on all summer and we are now into mass production of the vaccine. There have not been any surprises. The side effects of this vaccine seem to be the same as with any other flu vaccine (usually none or low fever). As always with vaccines and the media, you can’t believe everything you hear. We will notfy you when we have the vaccine available. There are also some plans at the health department to immunize kids at school. If your child gets the vaccine at school or somewhere else, please let us know so we can put it in our records.