Parents, health officials react to area H1N1 deaths

Health officials are telling people not to panic after word of two more deaths in our area because of swine flu. However, many are frustrated with their inability to get the vaccine.

"It's very frustrating," parent Mary Shannon said. "I thought that they were prepared last spring."

Ontario County's Public Health Director, Mary Beer, says there will be no further information about those deaths except that they were two adults who did not have pre-existing medical conditions.

Health officials are urging people not to panic, while hospitals and doctor's offices throughout Ontario County continue to wait for the vaccine.

Representatives at Thompson Hospital say they've seen a lot more patients in their emergency room and at their urgent care facility. Many of them, they say, are showing symptoms of H1N1 or the seasonal flu.

Parents in Ontario County said they're doing everything they can to protect their kids.

However, a lot of them said they haven't been able to get the H1N1 vaccine.

The problem? The vaccine just isn't available at a lot of clinics and doctor's offices at this point.

"My doctor's office and the clinic don't have it for his age right now," Shannon said. "So I just keep calling and hope to get it as soon as it gets in."

Lisa Carey has been calling her pediatrician as well.

"They don't have any vaccines yet, they haven't gotten any yet, she didn't know when they were going to get any, and she said just check their website for updates," Carey said. "So that's what we'll do."

Deborah Weymouth, Executive Vice-President of Thompson Hospital and Chief Financial Officer of Thompson Health, described the kind of demands they've seen for care.

"Our emergency room is about 20 percent busier than it has been in previous years," she said. "And our urgent care center, located on Route 332 in Farmington, is almost three times as busy as the volumes we've seen in the past. Now we've extended our hours and services there, but we're still seeing triple the patients that we had in the past."

Weymouth and the chief of Canandaigua Emergency Squad, Ken Beers, say it's important that people don't panic over the two deaths in Ontario County.

They said it's important that people remember there are deaths every year from seasonal flu and H1N1 is no different in that respect.

Most parents said the news made them concerned but they're not going to overreact.

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