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Jan. 21
Vaccination Clinic
at Charlton Heights a success
Several hundred Saratoga County pupils and adults
received the H1N1 vaccine at the flu shot clinic held at
the Charlton Heights Elementary School by the Saratoga County Public Health
Nursing Services on Thursday, January 21.
Health authorities are recommending this vaccine even
for children who may already have had an influenza-like
illness. Although local illness levels have
subsided for now, our area is expected to be hit with a
second wave of H1N1 later this winter or spring. In a
typical year, the most flu is seen from January to
March, and flu season lasts until May.
Important information about the
clinic.
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Only the H1N1 SHOT was given at this
clinic, not the nasal mist. The shot is
the inactivated form of the vaccine, and
it may contain preservative (thimerosal).
You can
read all about the shot here. |
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A second dose of vaccine is recommended
for children age 9 and younger. The
second dose should be given after 28
days. You can get this from your health
care provider or by calling Saratoga
County Public Health to make an
appointment for a free second shot at a
time convenient for you. PLEASE
keep the Patient Copy Form that your
child will receive upon getting the
first dose and bring it with you for the
second dose. |
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If you have questions about the clinic
or the vaccine, please call Saratoga
County Public Health at 584-7460 from
8:30 am to 4:00 pm.
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Pupils attending our Schenectady County schools (Pashley and the O'Rourke Middle School)
already had an opportunity to be vaccinated at a Dec. 15
clinic sponsored by Schenectady County Public Health.
General information on Flu
Preparedness & Prevention at BH-BL
Cold and flu season is still here, but the good news at
BH-BL is that our absenteeism rates
continue to be normal.
Our schools continue to do all the extra illness
prevention, cleaning and tracking procedures we have
been doing, even though illness rates have subsided.
Superintendent Jim Schultz asks all parents and staff to
continue to be vigilant about prevention because
health authorities tell us more spikes in the flu rate
are probable over the next several months.
To review what happened earlier in October:
In mid October, the BH-BL schools
began seeing much higher student absenteeism than is typical for
that month. We
had
numerous cases of colds and the flu in our district, and
each school
had students absent with the flu. Our medical
advisers said that, even if unconfirmed, most
cases of the flu in our area to date continue to be H1N1.
We had a high of 382 pupils absent district-wide (11%) on Oct.
14, a number that then declined to typical levels of 4 -
5% by the end of October. This number
could go up and down several times again before flu season is
over.
We believe the previous high absenteeism was due not
only to colds and flu, but also to school nurses sending
more children home during the day when they developed
flu-like symptoms and to parents keeping their children
home at the first sign of illness -- which
continues to be very important in preventing the spread
of illness.
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