New Hanover receives H1N1 vaccine

The H1N1 vaccine has arrived in our area. New Hanover County began giving out the vaccine today, but it’s not available to everyone everywhere just yet.

Leila Boynton came to the New Hanover County Health Department with her mom and her four month old brother so all three could get their seasonal flu shot and H1N1 vaccine.

The New Hanover County Health Department has received 1,000 doses of the vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Right now they are only offering the nasal spray.

Because the first shipments are so limited, health officials are only offering them to people who care for children under six months old, health care workers, emergency personnel, and healthy people between the ages of two and 49.

Pregnant women are also a top priority but they are advised to wait for the shot, though it’s not clear yet when that will be available.

Health departments across the state are expecting weekly shipments of the vaccine from the CDC.

“I think it’s important to get both seasonal and h1n1 vaccine because it is a preventable disease. And if we look at the statistics at how many hospitalizations and deaths there are per year, I don’t understand why people would take the chance to not be vaccinated,” said Vivian Mears of the New Hanover County Health Department.