11:33 a.m. — Get shot now if in H1N1 risk group

The Marion County Health Department today was encouraging people in the H1N1 at risk group who have not received an H1N1 vaccine to come to a Lafayette Square Mall clinic.

“There is currently a very short wait time and the Health Department has ample supplies of vaccine,” said spokesman John T. Althardt, spokesman for the
Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.

“Since opening the clinic at 10 this morning, the health department has vaccinated more than 1,500 individuals. Local health officials could vaccinate up to 5,000 individuals during today’s clinic which is open until 2 p.m.”

From today’s Indianapolis Star

Nine Hoosiers died last week from H1N1 influenza, nearly doubling the number of such deaths in the state since June.

While last week was by far the deadliest H1N1 week, state health officials see some signs that the illness is loosening its grip here. But by other measures, influenza activity — almost all of it H1N1 — remains at a historic high.

In the past two decades, doctors who monitor the flu for the state have never had that illness represent such a high percentage of their cases as last week, according to a state report released Wednesday.

Since June, H1N1 has killed 19 Indiana residents. Hospitalization rates for influenza and pneumonia increased by 41 percent in the past three weeks, particularly in northeast and southeast Indiana.

“This drives home that this can be a serious illness in some people,” said State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe.

People seeking the vaccine for themselves or for their children flooded clinics in the Indianapolis area Wednesday. At Lafayette Square Mall, about 1,200 people were in line when a clinic opened in the late afternoon.

The first person to receive a vaccine at the Marion County Health Department’s clinic at the mall was a 3-year-old girl whose grandmother arrived at 9:15 a.m., nearly six hours earlier, to hold her place in line.

Jessica Walters, 25, Lafayette, arrived about 2 p.m. and stood in line three hours with her children, Megan, 4, and Nathan, 3, to get shots. She’s troubled by estimates that up to 90,000 people could die from the flu nationally.

“When you look at numbers like that, you don’t want to leave your house,” she said.

Nathan Creel, 29, Indianapolis, also waited in line about three hours with his daughter Neviah, 6.

“I just want to make sure she’s going to be safe,” he said. “I don’t want her to get sick if she doesn’t have to.”

By the end of the clinic, 3,752 vaccine doses were administered, health officials said. The department had 5,000 doses available.

The Hamilton County Health Department had planned to give 500 doses in four hours Wednesday at its clinic at the county fairgrounds in Noblesville, but the plan changed when about 800 people showed up as the clinic opened at 4 p.m. County officials found 300 more doses, spokesman Tony Benge said.

While more than 205,510 Indiana residents have been vaccinated against H1N1, also known as swine flu, that accounts for only about 3 percent of the state’s population.

Meanwhile, some indicators suggest the H1N1 tide may be turning.

Emergency rooms saw a slight dip in influenza activity, according to the state’s weekly report.

In addition, only nine Indiana schools reported absentee rates higher than 20 percent, and university health centers saw a decrease in H1N1 cases.

“We’re hopeful that maybe we have reached the peak and maybe we will begin to see a decline,” Monroe said. “We’re still going to see a lot of activity, but we might actually start to see a little relief.”

Relief is also coming in the form of vaccines, albeit not as rapidly or in as great a supply as originally planned.

The state had ordered 666,000 vaccine doses as of Wednesday. Originally, Monroe expected to receive more than 900,000 doses by mid-October.

A little more than half of those who have received the vaccinations have been 6 months to 24 years old. Health-care and emergency response workers have received 29 percent of the vaccines, while pregnant women have received 5 percent.

Caregivers of infants younger than 6 months and people ages 24 to 64 who have certain medical conditions also count as high-risk and are eligible for the vaccinations.

Health officials say that once they have vaccinated a significant number of people in the high-risk group, they will open availability to anyone who wants the shot.