County unaffected by vaccine recall
Published 12:16 pm Thursday, December 24, 2009
Last week, the Alabama Department of Public Health began returning 5,200 doses of H1N1 flu vaccine due to a recall, but that recall didn’t affect Crenshaw County, officials say.
“None of the health departments in ADPH Area 10 received any of the recalled vaccines,” said Eileen Rogers, Area 10 nursing director.
Area 10 covers much of southeast Alabama, including Houston, Henry, Dale, Geneva, Barbour, Coffee, Pike and Crenshaw counties.
Rogers also specified that the recall, which was for vaccine intended for children between 6 and 35 months old, was not because of a safety-related issue.
“The level of the vaccine to produce immunity was lower than they wanted it to be, but there’s no need to revaccinate,” she said.
While the recall doesn’t affect Crenshaw County, residents do have an opportunity to get a shot at a walk-in clinic next week.
A clinic was held this past Tuesday at the health department, and another date is set for Wednesday, Dec. 30.
Rogers said these clinics provide a good window of opportunity for people to build immunity before going back to school or work after the holidays.
“We’ve been doing clinics since the vaccine came out, and now they feel like they have enough volume of the vaccine coming in that anyone who wants to reduce their risk can come in and get it,” Rogers said. “We’ve usually been having these clinics around the area about once a week, depending on the volume of vaccine and the call we have for it.”
The hours for the clinic are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, call the Crenshaw County Health Department at 335-2471 or visit www.adph.org.