The Upper Missouri District Health Unit staff is encouraging area residents to make time to get their H1N1 flu shot before hitting the road for Thanksgiving Wednesday afternoon.

This week's clinics in Williston, Watford City and Stanley are all from 1-5 p.m. Crosby's clinic at Divide County High School is today from 4-6:30 p.m. or until the vaccine runs out as there are 100 doses available.

"We still want them to have a chance to get vaccinated this week. We don't want to skip a week," UMDHU public information officer Daphne Clark said of this week's Thanksgiving break.

"If they are going to leave town, if they allow a little bit of time to get it before they leave town, it would be a good idea," she added.

This week's Williston clinic also returns to the UMDHU offices downtown after last week's clinic was held in Williston State College's old gym. A total of 286 vaccinations were given at WSC, as it was the first clinic UMDHU officials had the opportunity to promote it for 25-64-year-old adults with underlying medical conditions. "We did see quite a few people in that 25-64 age range with underlying health conditions," Clark said. "I would say a good percentage of them were in that age range."

Most of the children who attended the WSC clinic were there for their second dose of the H1N1 vaccine.

"In a week or two, those children will be fully protected then," Clark said. "We want to keep seeing those second dose children and then we would like to see more of those in that 25-64."

The first clinics the health unit conducted were exclusively for children, and about half of those individuals who attended are in the age 9 and younger category, she said.

"It is quite a chunk we need to see coming in for that second dose. They also are spaced out over a couple of weeks," Clark said.

Unfortunately, her hope of using all of the available 500 doses of vaccine at this past Friday's clinic didn't materialize.

"It's disappointing that we can't get rid of all of them in one shot," she said.

There are 230 doses allocated for the Williston clinic on Wednesday, while Watford City has 120 doses and Stanley 100 doses. The Watford City clinic is at the Civic Center, while the Stanley clinic is at the Memorial Building.

Clark said health unit officials are going to monitor how well it works to hold three clinics on the same day at the same time.

Meanwhile, the change in hours to 1-5 p.m. this week is to allow UMDHU staff a chance to get into the holiday weekend, she said. But it also is an opportunity to look at possible permanent changes regarding hours for clinics, Clark added. The clinics to this point have been from 2-7 p.m.

"We're finding those later evening hours, really a lot of people are not coming in," she said.

Clark said there is a serious drop in residents at the clinics after 5 p.m., so that pattern also is being scrutinized this week.

Next week, the clinics return to their regular rotations for the various communities, with Williston's being on Friday.

As for future H1N1 vaccine shipments, Clark said the latest information is allotments should be slightly larger than the last small shipment that arrived.

"We're expecting it to be bigger allotments and then steady, she said.

But for the health unit to continue to receive a larger vaccine count, the clinics need to have people attend and use the available vaccine so more can be shipped.

"If we aren't able to show we are getting it out into the community, we may not get as much because we're not moving it," Clark said.