Herald file photo A long line of people forms for the opportunity to get the H1N1 flu vaccine during the Upper Missouri District Health Unit's first Williston clinic on Oct. 23. The health unit has enough vaccine to hold another clinic that starts at 2 p.m. today.
Health unit public information officer Daphne Clark said it has 450 adult doses of the H1N1 vaccine to distribute at its clinic that begins at 2 p.m. and goes as long as the vaccine lasts or until 7 p.m.
The health unit originally received 100 doses of vaccine for its original allotment from Oct. 22 for today's clinic.
Since scheduling today's clinic, the health unit's vaccine allotments approved on Oct. 28 and Oct. 30 also have arrived.
Today's clinic remains for individuals ages 6 months to 18 years old and pregnant women. This is because of the vaccine the health unit has received. "Each vaccine, a lot of them are made by different companies. Each company has theirs approved for a different age group," Clark said of how the health unit determines which people are to receive the vaccine at a particular time.
"Out of those four manufacturers, there ends up being nine different age groups for the vaccines," she added.
The vaccine the health unit has this week can be for individuals 6 months to adult, she said.
"But because that is the only vaccine we are getting right now that gets down to that age, that is why we are prioritizing it for children," Clark added.
Meanwhile, the FluMist vaccine that is injected into a person's nostrils that the health unit has received, "is very prescriptive in that people must be 2 years old to 49 years old and have no underlying health conditions," Clark said.
She added that vaccine for people 4 years old and up is now starting to circulate.
"It's a balancing act," Clark said of the vaccine allocations.
The health unit's most recent allotment is for 460 adult doses of vaccine, which Clark pointed to as a sign that more vaccine is likely going to be available soon.
"We're starting to see them pick up," she said of the allocations. "My expectation is that they will keep growing."
Clark said health unit officials are to review how today's clinic goes to see if it they are making a dent in the target group.
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