TALLAHASSEE - Flu shots for high-risk children are on their way to county health clinics, and more doses will be sent to pediatricians Monday, Florida's top health official said Friday.
Some 13,000 flu shots for children were shipped Thursday and should arrive by today, Health Secretary John Agwunobi told reporters during a conference call.
Another 31,500 doses will be shipped on Monday to private doctors' offices. The vaccine is intended for babies and toddlers between the ages of 6 and 23 months and older children who are high risk because of chronic health conditions, like asthma or diabetes.
The best way for parents to find out which doctors have flu vaccine is to call their own pediatricians, Agwunobi said.
The United States is getting only about half the 100-million flu shots it had expected for the current flu season. One of two primary suppliers, Chiron Corp., is barred from shipping its vaccine from a British factory because of contamination problems.
The Pinellas County Health Department has received 200 doses of pediatric flu vaccine for at-risk children ages 24 months through 18 years and will administer them beginning at 10 a.m. Monday. Children at risk are those with documented chronic illnesses such as heart and lung disease, leukemia, asthma, cystic fibrosis, cancer and diabetes.
Children without written documentation of an at-risk condition will not be immunized. The vaccines will be administered first-come, first-served at the health department's offices in St. Petersburg (205 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N), Pinellas Park (6350 76th Ave. N) and Clearwater (310 N Myrtle Ave.)
Times staff writer Tom Zucco contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press.
