5024 Broadway Ave., Haltom City, TX 76117 (817) 222-7767
(12/28/09, From TC Press Release) Now that holiday shopping and socializing is over, people need to make a New Year’s Resolution to get their H1N1 immunization shot, urges Tarrant County Public Health (TCPH) Health Authority Dr. Sandra Parker.
“Since October, TCPH has administered more than 45,000 H1N1 vaccines and stands ready to distribute more” she said. “H1N1 is still a serious health concern and people need to find the time to get a vaccination from one of our clinics.”
All Tarrant County residents can receive the H1N1 vaccine, free of charge at any of 13 convenient and easily accessible locations. It is available not only at the seven County pubic health clinics but also in six shopping center store front clinics dedicated specifically to dispense the vaccine. While the health clinics are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 to 5 p.m., the store fronts are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Both the health clinics and the store fronts will be closed on Friday, January 1, but the store fronts will reopen on Saturday, January 2. The health clinics will reopen Monday, January 4, and the shopping center store fronts on Tuesday, January 5.
The health clinics first opened on November 20 and averaged about 1,400 vaccines a day through the first week of December. The store fronts began operating on December 3 and also averaged about 1,400 vaccines a day. However, activity at the sites cooled off as holiday shopping and socializing increased toward the end of the month. In the week before Christmas, total visitations to all the facilities dropped off to about 1,000 a day.
Concurrently, the County held four mass vaccination events. At the Thomas Coliseum in Haltom City, 1,660 shots were given, at the Resource Connection in south Fort Worth, 2,186 shots were given, at the Arlington Convention Center, 1,360 were given and at the Northwest Tarrant County College Campus in Fort Worth, 1,475 were given.
The most H1N1 vaccine that was given on a single day was on December 9 when the Northwest Tarrant County College event was held. In addition to the vaccine distributed there, an additional 1,204 vaccines were administered at the store fronts and 1,090 shots were given at the health clinics, for a grand total of 3,769.
The 45,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine distributed over the past eight weeks is the most flu vaccine that TCPH has ever administered in one season, said Dr. Parker, noting that the virus never left the North Texas area since it was first identified locally in April 2009.
Since the end of April, the incidence of influenza-like illnesses (ILI) has had two peaks, she said. The first was in the last week of April and the second at the first full week of October. Tarrant County’s surveillance of ILI is indicating a third rise in cases beginning the week after Thanksgiving. The highest absenteeism due to ILI reported by 16 independent school districts throughout Tarrant County was 25 percent for the week ending October 3.
A summary compiled by TCPH shows that there were 135 hospitalizations and 10 deathsassociated with 2009 H1N1 infection. Of hospitalized patients, 62 percent had underlyingmedical conditions while 70 percent of deaths had underlying medical conditions. TheCounty’s North Texas Regional Laboratory has tested 1,714 specimens anddetected the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus in 565 specimens.
For more information about H1N1 vaccinations, call 2-1-1 or go to the Tarrant County Public Health Web site at http://health.tarrantcounty.com. The Texas Department of State Health Services also maintains a Flu Vaccine Locator at www.Texasflu.org.
