Sacramento County Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to the declaration of a state of emergency to deal with the H1N1 flu virus.
The action follows similar declarations by state and federal health officials, and comes amid growing frustration over the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine's availability. Deliveries to health officials in the region continue to fall short of forecasts.
Uncertainty has already left Sacramento County's free H1N1 clinics schedule – due to begin Nov. 16 – up in the air.
"We are reconsidering our clinic schedule," said Sacramento public health officer Dr. Glennah Trochet. "It just depends on how much is available."
Vaccine manufacturers, who by now were supposed to have delivered 120 million doses nationwide, had only 31.8 million available as of Tuesday.
Locally, that's translated to a lot more people wanting the vaccine than getting it.
The region's health departments and providers in early October received a small dose of the H1N1 nasal spray vaccine, which has since been administered to children.
But the nasal spray vaccine can be administered only to healthy individuals, ages 2 to 49, leaving high-risk groups such as pregnant women and the chronically ill waiting for the shot version.
A second, larger shipment containing the vaccine in shot form was to arrive last week, and has arrived in health departments in the last few days. Placer County received 20,000 doses, short of its expected 25,000. Trochet had no estimate as to how many doses Sacramento County has received, but said it was less than the expected 50,000.
Until the second shipment, only Kaiser Permanente had the shots, and the provider will vaccinate only member patients. In a statement, Kaiser said it requested the H1N1 vaccine along with other providers and offered no speculation as to why it was the sole recipient in the area.
Shot supplies at Kaiser are "very limited," and they have been distributed to high-risk members only, the statement said.
The H1N1 flu vaccine's uneven distribution has left many people frustrated.
"All I hear is admonition about how I have to get the shot and I just can't," said Michelle van de Pol, who is seven months pregnant and has a young child. She said she has been calling her family's three Sutter-affiliated primary care doctors every day for a month, and hasn't had any luck.
Pregnant women are much more likely to become severely ill from H1N1, at last count accounting for 6 percent of confirmed U.S. deaths linked to H1N1.
At Tuesday's supervisors' meeting, Trochet said H1N1 infection rates have been rising and will likely continue to climb. She said the the emergency declaration, which gives the public health department more access to resources and a wider range of decision-making power, will facilitate the department's response.
As to the potential clinic changes, Trochet said it's because the county wants to give the vaccine to health care providers who serve high-risk populations first.
"Our first priority is for the community to have access, and one clinic open for four hours a day is not access," she said. When clinics do open, public health officials will not be shooing people away.
"But I would hope the pregnant women and other high-risk individuals will come in first and the rest of us wait," Trochet said.
Call The Bee's Anna Tong, (916) 321-1045.
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