The Orange County H1N1 weekly death rate is holding steady, but statewide, the number of weekly new hospitalizations has been decreasing for the last 3 weeks. Dr. Mark Horton, Director of the California Department of Public Health, CDPH, says the disease is “wide spread” and is “continuing to be a significant threat to the people of California.” Yesterday, as he referenced one vaccination recall, he repeated the necessity of vaccinations for all Californians.
Yesterday CDPH reported the number of statewide H1N1 weekly hospitalizations fell to 248. The previous week, it was 278, and the week before that, it hit the current peak at 794. The current hospitalization rate is the lowest since the state started releasing weekly numbers earlier this year.
Last week’s statewide H1N1 death rate also was lower than the previous week. It fell to 20, down from 31 fatalities the previous week. However, for Orange County, there does not appear to be a similar improving trend. Last’s weeks OC death rate from H1N1 was 5, compared to 4 in the two previous weeks.
Horton said “We may be seeing a peak in this particular wave or may even be seeing a decrease.” However he added “we are continuing to see more than half of local jurisdictions reporting outbreaks.” For this reason, he still characterizes H1N1 to be “widespread in California.”
In yesterday’s media briefing, Dr. Horton reported that over 10 million doses of H1N1 vaccination have been delivered to California, but he also addressed the much publicized recall of a batch of vaccinations. He indicated about 100,000 doses in California are affected by the recall. The vaccine involved is the type for children under three years of age. He said “Let me stress that this is not a safety concern. This has to do with efficacy. By aggressive monitoring of the vaccine, the manufacturer determined that there was a slightly decreased amount of virus particles in the vaccine.” While this could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, Horton indicated that people who might have received vaccinations from this batch do not need to be revaccinated. He added “that there is no safety concern as a result of being vaccinated.”
In addressing the safety of all H1N1 vaccine, Horton also expressed confidence. He said “We are very aggressively monitoring for any type of adverse affects as a result of an individual becoming vaccinated and we’re very please to report that to date the number of adverse reactions that we’ve seen to the vaccine are in fact less than we see during the normal seasonal vaccine program.”
For Orange County, increased supplies of the vaccine have allowed the county to eliminate any restrictions on who receives the inoculations. The Health Care Agency, HCA, continues to offer an appointment only clinic at its 17th Street facility in Santa Ana. As of this week, the restriction of only people in the five target groups has been lifted. HCA posted this comment on their web site:
“As a result of increasing vaccine availability and the effective targeting of vaccine efforts towards persons at highest risk by our community provider partners, the Health Care Agency (HCA) now recommends expanding 2009 H1N1 vaccine availability beyond the initial federal and state target groups to all individuals who are interested in being vaccinated.”
To schedule an appointment at the county’s free clinic, call the Health Referral line at 1-800-564-8448, Monday to Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. H1N1 Vaccination Clinic hours:
Monday to Saturday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Closed for lunch 11:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. daily
Click here to go to the HCA web site.
Another way to find the H1N1 vaccine is through Google. They have a zip code based locator; click here to go to the page.
