12/2/2009 11:42:00 AM H1N1 clinics in Verona will be by appointment only School clinics might resume in January
People in target groups who have been waiting to get an H1N1 vaccination will be able to make appointments at three Verona clinics this month.
Public Health-Madison and Dane County announced Monday that it will provide 18 community clinics for the shots over the next two weeks, as well as one more large-scale clinic at the Alliant Energy Center on Dec. 14.
The first one in Verona is this week, from 3-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3. It will be followed by clinics on the next two Thursdays, all at Salem United Church of Christ, 502 Mark Drive.
Public Health communications manager Jeff Golden stressed that the clinics will not take walk-in traffic. Appointments can be made by calling Public Health's Flu Line at 243-0555.
Wisconsin received almost 1 million doses of the vaccine for H1N1, also known as swine flu, in the two months since the supply ran short nationwide and Public Health had to cancel school clinics all over the county.
Soon after that Oct. 26 announcement, all the major health care providers in the area and the United Way's public information line were inundated with phone calls from people looking for H1N1 shots and unable to find them. Clinics had varying supplies, but all were short of doses and typically were giving the shots only to the most at-risk patients, if at all.
As the vaccine became more available, Public Health opened some opportunities for those in the priority target groups, such as infants and pregnant women.
The community vaccination clinics, which follow a larger clinic Nov. 17-18, will be held in six locations around the county. In addition to Verona, they will be in East Madison, Stoughton and Middleton on Wednesdays and in Sun Prairie and south Madison on Thursdays.
Golden said the Verona clinics will have 192 doses in total.
The original target groups, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are:
• Pregnant women
• People who live with or care for infants less than 6 months of age
• Anyone ages 6 months to 24 years
• People 25-64 with underlying health conditions
The Dec. 14 clinic at the Alliant Energy Center will have more narrow criteria, with ages 5 and up accepted only with underlying health conditions or if they are young children needing a booster shot after an initial dose.
Public Health also announced it will resume school clinics in January. In Verona, four of the nine scheduled local school clinics, including one at the high school, were canceled.
Although the December clinics are only for high-risk groups, CDC has said there will eventually be enough vaccine for anyone who wishes to receive it.
Meanwhile, Public Health is also partnering with area EMS agencies to provide vaccine to the original targeted groups in their Dane County communities. More information will be posted at www.publichealthmdc.com as it becomes available.
That site has information on all the clinics, including definitions of "underlying health conditions."
Community clinic information is also available at United Way 2-1-1 and on the Wisconsin Flu Clinic Locator at www.wisconsinfluclinic.info.
