At a press conference Friday morning at the Health and Social Services Building in Fairfield, several health representatives joined together hoping to inform residents of Solano County.
"This is an exceptional gathering," said Dr. Ron Chapman, Solano Public Health officer. "This is an exceptional flu we are preparing for."
Next week, the federal government will begin their shipment of vaccines to each state. From there, Solano County is expected to receive about 2,000 vaccines with the first allotment. By month's end, the nation should start receiving weekly shipments of vaccines for both the seasonal flu and the H1N1 virus.
At that time, 195 million doses will have been shipped nationwide, according to Chapman.
Although everyone is encouraged to be vaccinated for both viruses, there are groups that are a priority depending on risk of being infected.
The priority populations include pregnant women, people who live with/care for infants younger than 6 months old, healthcare/emergency services personnel, people between 6 months and 24 years old and people ages 25-64 old with chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems. The vaccines come in two forms: a nasal mist and an injection.
"Our goal is to make the vaccine available to everyone," Stacey said.
Public health and health care agencies are partnering with each other and other sectors, such as schools, to make sure families stay well this season.
"We hope to improve health outcomes with timely vaccinations," said Robin Cox, manager of health education for Solano Public Health.
Chapman explained that the H1N1 flu strain is the first pandemic in 40 years. Yearly, there are about 36,000 deaths related to seasonal flu. According to Chapman, those numbers will likely be higher for H1N1. It's likely that millions have been infected with the strain.
"H1N1 is not acting like the regular flu," he said. "There are more cases and more deaths."
He said it's likely that 40 percent of Americans will be infected with H1N1.
Chapman also explained that the United States has entered into the second wave of the pandemic. The first wave was in April and May, which is highly unusual to see.
In Solano County, there have been three deaths. The most recent was an adult male who had a number of other health conditions that put him at risk.
A pandemic means it's easy to spread from person to person, so officials are gearing up for more people getting sick and the huge impact it will have on the health care system.
"We're going to do what we can to make sure it doesn't spread," Chapman said, adding that the precautions are rather common sense and things people have heard since they were children.
Those precautions include washing hands frequently and using alcohol-based hand sanitizer. He also recommends sneezing and coughing into a shirt sleeve or elbow.
He strongly emphasized to stay home if someone is sick at least 24 hours until the fever is gone without using fever reducing medications.
At Travis Air Force Base and other military bases, all active duty personnel are required to be vaccinated. Already about half at Travis have been given the seasonal flu vaccine.
Lt. Col. Fred Kelsey, public health officer, said that the same precaution will be implemented for the H1N1 vaccine.
A blog written by Daman Mott, director of Infection Control and Clinical Support Services, has been set up by NorthBay Healthcare to help answer questions. Visit the flu page at
www.northbay.org.
For additional information about the virus, talk with a health care provider or visit Solano Public Health at
www.co.solano.ca.us.
