Oct 23, 2009 5:41 pm US/Central
H1N1 Cases Are Up, Vaccine Availability Is Down
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Vials of H1N1 vaccine by manufacturer CSL are displayed near its production line in Melbourne, Australia on September 24, 2009.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images
Chicago is expected to open its first clinic to offer the H1N1 vaccine this weekend. But there isn't enough to go around. CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports that the Chicago Health Department held a press conference Friday morning to discuss the availability of the vaccine.
The number of doses of the vaccine is down from what they originally predicted, while the number of cases of H1N1 is up from what they expected.
By the end of the year, researchers predict six out of 10 people will have been infected with H1N1. And one out of every four will have gotten sick from the virus.
In Illinois, 22 people have died from the virus since April, and 542 have been hospitalized.
The Chicago Health Department did receive its first allocation of 150,000 doses about three weeks ago, and they've distributed that to over 400 facilities. That number is less than what the government predicted.
Nationwide, they projected that 40 million doses would be available by the end of this month, but only about a third of that has arrived at clinics across the country.
It's a challenging way to head into a flu season that's already worse than normal.
"We are as prepared as we can be. The only issue we have is obviously we had made our plans based on the projections for the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine that we were originally given by the Feds," said Dr. Terry Mason, Chicago Health Dept. Commissioner.
"We're monitoring influenza-like illness in emergency rooms. We're also monitoring influenza-like illness in outpatient clinics, and we're looking at hospitalizations in the city of Chicago," said Dr. Julie Morita, Chicago Health Dept. Medical Director. "And all of our indicators right now suggest that influenza-like illness, or influenza activity, is actually increasing, and has been increasing for the past few weeks."
The first free vaccination clinic will be held Saturday at six city colleges, but because the supplies are so low, they're asking that not everybody comes out.
They want to reserve the doses that are available now for people in high-risk groups, which includes pregnant women, people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years, anyone who might have an immune problem and health care workers.
Everybody else should be patient. They will be holding the free clinics every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the six city colleges through the end of the month.
Click here for information on clinic locations.
The reported lack of H1N1 vaccine is borne out by a CBS 2 survey of 60 doctor offices in the Chicago region.
The survey found 42 of the 60 offices had ordered the vaccine but had not received it. Seven offices had a limited supply but expected to run out quickly. Six offices didn't expect to get a supply, even though they wanted it. Four did not order the vaccine. Only one office reported having plenty of the H1N1 vaccine.
So how do you know if you have it?
The symptoms are the same, but more severe than the traditional flu, like fever, coughing and headaches. But you may also have vomiting and diarrhea.
CBS 2's Susan Carlson contributed to this report.
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