Swine flu vaccination clinic in Genesee County

New cases of the swine flu are popping up all over our area and many children are out sick from school. A swine flu vaccine clinic was held this afternoon in Genesee County.

A 5th grader at Pembroke Intermediate School died from complications of the swine flu last month.

By the time the clinic opened at two o'clock, the line of people waiting was out the door and around the building. But some would be disappointed. The Genesee County Health Department had about 1,000 doses of seasonal flu vaccine on hand and only about 200 doses of swine flu vaccine. The bulk of that was in nasal mist form.

Sherry and Jim Starowitz of Bergen came with their children ages three, two and one. "My concern is with my one daughter who has asthma. I'm just nervous. You hear the stories on the news. I feel for the parents who have lost their children. And I want to make sure that I do everything I can to keep my children safe."

It was chaotic but organized chaos. They gave out numbers and county health workers had the help of dozens of volunteers from the public health emergency response team.

Ginny Sellan, the supervising public health nurse, said people were waiting as early as 10 a.m. "We were feeling the pressure of getting as many people vaccinated as possible."

The Genesee County Health Department screened people to make sure they were in the phase-one priority or high risk group. Genesee County had a public clinic about a week ago and gave the H1N1 vaccine to 242 people. Future clinics have not been scheduled yet.

As for Monroe County, the health department said the first public flu clinics around Rochester won't be open for at least two weeks.

The health department says it wants to have ample vaccine available because of the large population in Monroe County. The health department will announce the details, where and when about a week prior to the clinics.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our websitewww.whec.com.

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