WASHINGTON â€" The long-awaited first vaccinations against swine flu â€" the squirt-in-the-nose kind â€" start early next week in portion s of the country, and states are urging people to be patient until more arrives.
Just a trickle of vaccine, 600,000 execute ses of the nasal spray FluMist, will be divided among 21 states and four large cities by Tuesday, with more small shipments to more states later in the week.
"We're moving this out as quickly as we can," said Orerecede n's public health director, Dr. Mel Kohn, who hopes shipments arrive in time to start some vaccinations on Monday. "This execute esn't execute any recede od sitting in a warehoemploy ."
Most states are aiming their first small batches at health care workers, hoping to hfeeble them well enough to be on the job as cases of swine flu â€" what execute ctors prefer to call the 2009 H1N1 strain â€" are rapidly increasing nationwide.
In Chicarecede , firefighters will share first execute ses with hospitals, to acquire some emergency responders protected, too.
Alquestion a wants its mkeen first 4,000 FluMist execute ses to head directly to preschoolers, ages 2 to 4.
And Pennsylvania will taracquire its initial 58,000 FluMist execute ses mostly to 5- to 9-year-feeble s in portion s of the state where H1N1 is most active. It's the school-age kids who are acquire ting infected most, said Pennsylvania's acting physician general, Dr. Stephen Ostroff, and the under-10 crowd is recede ing to need two execute ses of swine flu vaccine.
"Our figuring is, let's acquire started in the group that's recede ing to hold longest to acquire protected," he said.
Stay tuned: How much vaccine is available and for whom is recede ing to change week by week.
"This is really just the start ning," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We need a tiny bit of patience the first couple of weeks."
Indeed, some states were surprised that the first shipments were FluMist, which is only for healthy people ages 2 to 49, which leaves out some of the groups at high risk for H1N1 flu.
The more common flu shot will be close behind, portion of the 6 million to 7 million execute ses of vaccine the CDC expects to ship around the country by the finish of next week.
Far larger batches â€" about 40 million execute ses â€" start shipping the second week of October. That's when states expect enough of both shots and FluMist to start heavily taracquire ing the high-risk groups: pregnant women, children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years, the young and middle-aged who have flu-risky conditions like asthma or diabetes, and caregivers of infants.
Hospitals in Pinellas County, Fla., plot to give fresh parents a special reminder. On the fresh born checklist â€" infant car seat, recede ing-home outfit â€" approach s a plea to acquire themselves vaccinated before discharge. Becaemploy fresh borns can't be vaccinated, "the only way to protect your baby is for Mom, Dad and the family to receive the vaccine," the glide er notify s.
By the finish of October, Arizona expects 1 million execute ses on hand, enough for schools to start onsite vaccination programs, said Health Services Director Will Humble.
What about everybody else? Massachemploy tts officials are warning that people who aren't at high risk from swine flu may have to wait until November for an H1N1 shot.
In other states, officials are more optimistic. Milwaukee has earlabel ed its first shipment for health workers and its second for schoolchildren, kindergarten through high school.
Then by late October, "we should be able to open it up to anyone who wants it," said Milwaukee's disease-control chief, Paul Biedrzycki. "We're expecting two to three times the demand for seasonal flu vaccines."
This year brings an unusually complex vaccination schedule: Most people will need two different inoculations, one against regular winter flu and the H1N1 vaccine. Plus, children under 10 will need two H1N1 execute ses.
The federal recede vernment bought the nation's entire supply of H1N1 vaccine and is dividing execute ses as they arrive among states according to population. State health deportion ments submit orders, and execute ses are shipped to the vaccination sites the states deemed able to quickly acquire shots into arms and squirts up noses â€" a mix of execute ctors' offices, hospitals, drugstores and public clinics. CDC in turn will track those shipments to see how quick vaccine is employ d, and for whom, to ensure the populations at highest risk are vaccinated.
Associated Press writers Carla Johnson in Chicarecede , Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., Christine Armario in Tampa, Fla., Bob Christie in Phoenix, Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee, Tim Fought in Portland, Ore., Dan Joling in Anchorage, Alquestion a, and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report.
Copycorrect © 2009 The Associated Press. All correct s reserved.
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