By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
Seasonal flu vaccines are running low at some area health-care providers.
The Beaufort County Health Department expects run out of the vaccine, which is used to administer flu shots, by noon today. The department will be taking walk-in patients starting at 8 a.m. Kerr Drug anticipates running out of the vaccine by Friday, and it will be accepting walk-in patients from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until then, according to pharmacist Lisa Brown.
Brown, who is the only pharmacist at Kerr certified to administer the seasonal flu shot, said she has been seeing up to 60 patients a day since she started giving the shots after Labor Day.
“People have really taken advantage of the walk-ins,” she said. “We’re not turning anyone away.”
The pharmacy had to cancel its remaining flu clinics because of the vaccine shortage, Brown said.
The health department has given out approximately 1,200 seasonal vaccines since Labor Day, according to preparedness coordinator Kelli Russell.
Russell said that once the health department is out of the seasonal flu vaccine, it will turn its attention to obtaining more H1N1 vaccines.
“There are other providers in the county that have the seasonal vaccines,” she said.
The Walgreen’s pharmacy on East 12th Street is still taking walk-ins for flu vaccinations, while Maxim Healthcare is providing public flu-care clinics throughout the county until the end of the year.
Maxim Health care will conduct a clinic from 9 a.m. to noon Friday at the Belhaven Senior Center and another Oct. 22 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the First Church of Christ in Washington.
Additional dates for public clinics can be found at www.findaflushot.com.
“There hasn’t been a concern with the seasonal vaccine. We seem to have a very ample supply,” said Mark Schuler, a health-care recruiter with Maxim Healthcare.
CVS Pharmacy on John Small Avenue also will be holding a public clinic Oct. 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but it will not be taking walk-ins.
Local health providers have more concerns over when they will receive H1N1 vaccines.
The health department received its first allotment of the H1N1 flu vaccine (nasal spray) Friday, and it distributed 104 doses during a flu clinic the same day, Russell said. The remaining 96 doses were given to health-care providers in the county, and the health department is not sure when more doses will be available.
“We’ll be getting more vaccines soon, but we can’t tell if they will be nasal sprays or injections (shots),” she said.
Other area health-care providers will get the H1N1 vaccine directly from the state, according to Russell. The state asked the health department to compile a list of all the health-care providers in the county and send it to Raleigh.
Russell said the state is trying to distribute the vaccine to individuals most susceptible to the flu, including pregnant women, infants and the elderly before making it available to the rest of the public.
“They want to hit the right kind of people,” she said.