Health district hosts flu clinic Saturday

No shortages of vaccine expected

MOSES LAKE — The Grant County Health District is offering the second of two flu clinics Saturday.

The clinic will be offered in Moses Lake from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Moses Lake Senior Center for the general public. No appointment is needed.

The first clinic was held today in Ephrata at the United Methodist Church from 3 to 7 p.m.

Vaccines cost $27 and insurance reimbursement information will be provided.

The flu season typically peaks in late January or February, but the health district will continue tracking possible flu cases until May, said Peggy Grigg, director of personal health services at the GCHD.

Grigg said right now the GCHD has 600 available vaccines with no confirmed cases of the flu at this time.

So far this year's flu season is not shaping up to be as chaotic as the 2004 season, when the nation's flu vaccine supply was cut in half.

That happened after the California based Chiron Corporation, one of two manufacturers in the nation that distributes the fluverin influenza vaccine, announced that one of its offices in Liverpool, England was suspended from releasing the product due to possible contamination.

Locally, the impact of the shortage prompted dozens of people, primarily those considered high risk, to line up early inside the doors of the urgent care center at Pioneer Medical Center in Moses Lake. In a single day more than 700 flu vaccines were administered to those considered to be high risk.

High risk groups include children between the ages of 6 and 23 months, adults 65 years of age and older, persons aged 2 to 64 with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, residents of nursing home and long-term care facilities, health care workers involved in direct patient care, children on chronic aspirin therapy, caregivers and those in contact with children less than 6 months of age.

In a statement released by the Washington State Department of Health at the beginning of October, it was reported that the state expects to receive its full allocation of 200,000 flu vaccines this season.