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October 19, 2009

H1N1 vaccine at Plattsburgh State

By STEPHEN BARTLETT

PLATTSBURGH — Andrew Desmarais isn’t going to let H1N1 knock him out of school for two weeks.

On Monday, he received the vaccine at Plattsburgh State, where he is a junior.

“The line was short,” he smiled, after getting the vaccine. “I’m not too nervous about getting swine flu. I just don’t want to miss school.”

Plattsburgh State received 800 doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which were administered to students at Angell College Center throughout the day Monday.



OTHER COLLEGES

The university is the first locally to begin administering the vaccine, but other area colleges say they will follow suit shortly, with some making it part of a larger community outreach effort.

“We hope to be starting this week or next week,” said Reiko Rexilius-Tuthill, a registered nurse at Paul Smith’s College. “We always do immunizations, in general, and we have been giving out the seasonal-flu vaccine. We will be doing H1N1, and it will be aimed at our campus population.”

North Country Community College will host a flu clinic for Franklin and Essex counties from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 4 at its Saranac Lake campus gymnasium. The clinic will offer seasonal-flu and H1N1 vaccines for the community, as well as students, faculty and staff at the college.

“It will all be contingent on supply,” said Bobbie Karp, director of campus and student life at NCCC. “As long as it is there and we receive it, we will make it available to the public for free.”



STRONG INTEREST

A total of 400 H1N1 vaccines at Plattsburgh State arrived in shot form, with the rest being the mist.

Traffic to the vaccine clinic remained fairly strong and steady throughout the day, with long lines at times.

“For whatever reason, the students seem to prefer the vaccine in shot form,” said Michelle Marasch Ouellette, associate director of public relations and publications.

Plus, some students are unable to take the mist form of the vaccine because of pre-existing conditions, such as asthma.

“As a result, they were strongly encouraging those who could take the mist form to do so, so that there would be more of the shot form for the people who needed it,” Ouellette said.



NERVOUS

The nasal mist made Mai Than uncomfortable. But the Plattsburgh State junior is nervous about the possibility of catching H1N1.

“A lot of people in my country got it,” said Than, who is from Vietnam.

H1N1, better known as swine flu, is a new virus that was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009.

Today, 41 states report widespread influenza activity. Since this past April, 86 pediatric deaths have been confirmed in the United States, while the total death toll worldwide is nearing 5,000.

The Centers for Disease Control H1N1 target populations for vaccination are: health-care workers, pregnant women, children and young adults between the ages 2 and 24 and individuals ages 25 to 64 who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.

Plattsburgh State had a limited number of mists and shot H1N1 vaccines left after Monday’s clinic. The college plans to hold a second clinic today, starting at 10 a.m. at Angell College Center.

Juanita Gratton, a sophomore at Plattsburgh State, said she decided to get the H1N1 vaccine after the media “blew up” the issue.

“Being around so many people, I just wanted to be safe.”

She took her friend Patricia Wilson with her to the clinic at Plattsburgh State.

“It’s free, and I live in the dorms,” said Wilson, a junior at the university. “I am actually more worried about the side effects from the vaccine than I am about H1N1.”



E-mail Stephen Bartlett at:

sbartlett@pressrepublican.com

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