Bel Air, MD – February 23, 2010 – On Saturday, February 27, 2010, the Harford County Health Department will conduct another public, walk-up H1N1 flu vaccination clinic at the Harford Mall. Both injectable and mist forms of the H1N1 vaccine will be available at no cost to the general public between 10:00am and 2:00pm, on a “no-appointment, walk-up” basis near the indoor entrance to Macy’s Department Store.
The Harford County Health Department continues to reach out to local communities, having implemented H1N1 flu vaccination clinics throughout the county in Aberdeen, Bel Air, Belcamp, Cardiff, Forest Hill, Havre de Grace and Jarrettsville, as well as on a “walk-in” basis at their Woodbridge operations center on regularly scheduled dates throughout recent months.
Harford County Health Officer Susan Kelly states, “Our last H1N1 vaccination clinic at Harford Mall was a tremendous success even though ...Continue Reading
Bel Air, MD – January 6, 2010 – National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) is a national observance taking place January 10 – 16, 2010 that was established to highlight the importance of influenza vaccination. It also serves to promote greater use of flu vaccine after the holiday season into January and beyond, at a time when demand for vaccine usually drops significantly.
Although the novel H1N1 influenza has been the most common flu virus over the past six months, the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expects that circulation of regular seasonal flu viruses also will cause illness. Because both influenzas are expected to remain prevalent in the months ahead, both vaccinations are recommended as the most important step in protecting against serious illness.
Harford County Health Officer, Ms. Susan Kelly, states, “It’s critical to our community’s best public health interests that everyone ...Continue Reading
Bel Air, MD – January 8, 2009 – During the observance of National Influenza Vaccination Week, January 10th through January 16th, 2010, the Harford County Health Department will hold two more H1N1 influenza injectable vaccine clinics for the general population on Wednesday, January 13th at their Woodbridge Station operations center located at 1321 Woodbridge Station Way in Edgewood, Maryland and on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at the Bel Air Armory, located at 37 North Main Street in downtown Bel Air. Both vaccination clinics will be available at no cost to the public.
The Wednesday, January 13th vaccination clinic at Woodbridge in Edgewood will be held between the hours of 1:30pm and 4:30pm. Appointment times are available but not required by calling the appointment Call-Center at 410-877-1050. Walk-ins are welcomed, as well. Persons with appointments are reminded not to arrive more ...Continue Reading
On Tuesday evening, December 22, 2009, MedImmune, the manufacturer of H1N1 FluMist vaccine, announced a non-safety related recall of 13 batches (referred to as “lots”) of live attenuated (LAIV) “nasal mist” influenza vaccine.
The Harford County Health Department received several shipments containing portions of these FluMist lots during October. However, the Department administered them shortly after receiving it, when manufacturer testing determined that the supply had an acceptable level of potency.
This recall never was associated with any safety risk and revaccination is not recommended for persons who received one from any of the implicated LAIV lots.
As part of its quality assurance program, the manufacturer of the nasal spray monovalent 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine, MedImmune, performs routine, ongoing stability testing of the vaccine. Stability testing means measuring the strength (also called potency) of the vaccine over time to make sure it does not ...Continue Reading
The Harford County Health Department will be conducting an H1N1 influenza vaccination clinic for the general population on Friday, December18, 2009 at their Woodbridge Station operations center located at 1321 Woodbridge Station Way in Edgewood, Maryland.
The vaccination clinic will be available at no cost by appointment only, between the hours of 8:30am through 4:30pm. Members of the public wishing to obtain appointments to receive the H1N1 injectable vaccine clinic can do so by calling 410-877-1050 beginning Wednesday, December 16th at 8:00am. Persons with appointments are instructed not to arrive more than ten minutes prior to their scheduled appointment time.
The decision follows Governor Martin O’Malley’s announcement last week that Maryland will expand the distribution of H1N1 (Swine) flu vaccine to the general population, adding healthy adults and seniors to the five target groups for whom the vaccine is currently recommended. Those target groups will ...Continue Reading
Bel Air, MD – December 8, 2009 – The Harford County Health Department will be conducting an H1N1 influenza vaccination clinic for all H1N1 flu vaccine target groups on Friday, December11, 2009 at their Woodbridge Station operations center located at 1321 Woodbridge Station Way in Edgewood, Maryland. The vaccination clinic will be available at no cost, but by appointment only, between the hours of 8:30am through 4:30pm.
The National Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel composed of medical and public health experts, includes the following groups in those prioritized to receive the H1N1 vaccine:
o Pregnant women
o Parents, household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age
o Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel
o All persons 6 months through 24 years of age
o Persons 25 through 64 years of age who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical ...Continue Reading
The Harford County Health Department has announced a community H1N1 vaccination clinic for pregnant women and people who live with, or care for, children under 6 months of age. The clinic is planned for Wednesday, December 9, 2009 from 1:30 – 6:30 p.m at the Health Department location at 1321 Woodbridge Station Way, Edgewood, MD 21040. This clinic is by appointment only.
Appointments can be made beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday, December 7, by calling 410-877-1050. Please do not arrive more than 10 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment. Vaccinations will be given in the injectable form.
It started as a trickle in mid-October, ebbed and flowed through November, and thanks to a final surge in early December, the H1N1 vaccine will have been offered to every student in Harford County Public Schools by Friday, December 18, 2009.
Nationally, production delays have resulted in a shortage of the H1N1 vaccine. In Maryland, inconsistencies in distribution have meant that some county health departments completed their school-based vaccination programs, while school-based programs in other counties were wanting, according to Bill Wiseman, spokesman for the Harford County Health Department. The have-nots expressed what Wiseman called “frustration” and in the past few days, he said an agreement was struck among county health officers to send available H1N1 vaccine to the counties in need. Harford County will be on the receiving end of that agreement.
And so, the Harford County Health Department has announced that the following public elementary schools will offer the ...Continue Reading
Local demand for the H1N1 vaccine still outstrips supply, but by week’s end the Harford County Health Department will have offered immunizations to students at more than half of the 53 public schools in Harford County.
Currently, there are no identified outbreaks of influenza-like illness in Harford County public schools, and nearly all of the schools with previous outbreaks are expected to have received the H1N1 vaccine by Friday, December 4, 2009.
The one exception is Havre de Grace Middle School, which first reported an outbreak on October 13th and was taken off of the outbreak list on October 30, but has yet to receive an allocation of the H1N1 vaccine from the Harford County Health Department. Department spokesman Bill Wiseman said Havre de Grace MS was not overlooked, but that past outbreaks are not a factor in determining which schools will receive the vaccine. He said that allocation decisions ...Continue Reading
I love following governments and what they are doing. I also get alarmed at the very idea of a crisis occurring on any level, be it federal, state or local. So imagine my concern when I attended the Harford County Council meeting on October 20 and heard Susan Kelly, Harford County’s Board of Health officer, talk about how Harford County had to cancel its flu clinics because the county is running short of vaccines for the regular flu as well as vaccines for the H1N1 strain.
The real question to ask is this: How can a county in one of the most innovative countries in the world run short of flu vaccine at the end of the first decade of the 21st century? In my twenty-six (twenty-seven in January, ugh) years on this planet, how can we have a shortage of flu vaccine year after year? Why isn’t this ...Continue Reading
