H1N1 vaccine more readily available in Va.

Vaccine for H1N1 flu is starting to become available to the general public and should be even easier to get in the next week.

Dr. Karen Remley, Virginia health commissioner, said doctors and health departments already have been instructed to give the vaccine for H1N1, or swine flu, to the general public, not just priority groups such as children, pregnant women and people with chronic diseases.

The nasal spray vaccine, which is for healthy people ages 2 through 49 who aren't pregnant, also began arriving at drugstore pharmacies this week.

Remley said she hopes that by next week there will be enough of the injectable version to ship to retail stores and other sites that have signed up to administer vaccines.

In her weekly H1N1 update Thursday, Remley said the department has also been trying to do outreach to hard-to-reach groups, such as Spanish-speaking communities and people in the 18-to-24 age range.

She said about 11 percent of Virginians have been vaccinated, a rate she would like to move to 30 to 35 percent. Children have the highest rate of vaccination in Virginia, at about 25 percent. The percentage of people going to emergency rooms and urgent care centers with flu symptoms is 3 percent, a sharp decline from late October's 15 percent.

Responding to reports of a shortage of the vaccine for the seasonal flu, Remley said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that 96 percent of that vaccine already has been distributed.

She said it's unclear at this point whether the next wave of flu will be H1N1, the seasonal flu or both.

The nasal spray version of the H1N1 vaccine is now available at some Walgreens pharmacies.

For more information, call (800) 925-4733 or go to www.walgreens.com/flu.

Elizabeth Simpson, (757)446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com