Kansas
Department of Health & Environment
Bill Graves, Governor

Clyde D. Graeber, Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 5, 2001

Contact: Mike Heideman, 785-296-5795

High-Risk Persons to Receive Priority for Flu Shot in September and October

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is advising that during September and October, people at high risk for adverse health effects from influenza be given priority to receive this year’s influenza vaccine from physicians, hospitals, and local health departments. KDHE has been notified by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that there may be a nationwide delay in distributing the vaccine. If there is a delay, it is now projected to be small, certainly less than last year.

Health care workers are also being given priority due to the possibility they may spread the flu to high-risk persons. Normal distribution of the vaccine is expected to resume in November.

"For young adults with no chronic health problems and who do not work in health care, our advice is to please wait until the vaccine is widely available, which should be in late October or early November to get a flu shot this year," said Gianfranco Pezzino, M.D., State Epidemiologist. "The goal is to provide immediate protection for people who are at greatest risk."

Pezzino said people who face the greatest health risk from the flu include:

• people 65 years of age and older;
• adults and children with long-term heart or lung problems;
• residents of nursing homes and other institutions housing patients who have serious long-term health problems;
• adults and children who have kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, anemia, severe asthma, cancer or immunologic disorders, and other medical conditions for which they are under the close supervision of a doctor; and
• women in their second or third trimester of pregnancy.

The trivalent influenza vaccine prepared for the 2001-2002 season will include A/Moscow/10/99(H3N2)-like, A/new Caledonia/20/99(H1N1)-like, and B/Sichuan/379/99-like strains. The 2000-2001 strains were A/Moscow/10/99(H3N2)-like, A/new Caledonia /20/99(H1N1)-like, and B/Beijing?184/93-like.

Receiving a flu shot cannot cause someone to develop the flu. The vaccine is usually around 80 percent effective in preventing illness from influenza virus. This means that it is possible to get influenza after having the vaccine, but even when illness occurs symptoms are usually less severe and complications less frequent.

Between 20,000 and 40,000 people die from influenza each year in the United States. Influenza is spread by direct contact with an infected person or by airborne droplets which produce infection when they are inhaled or ingested off the hands. Persons are most contagious during the 24 hours before they develop symptoms and are usually somewhat infectious for the next six or seven days. The incubation period, the time from when the virus enters the body until symptoms appear, is usually one to three days.