More than a million doses of swine flu vaccine a week are expected to start rolling in next month, state health officials said Thursday, but the first batches probably won't be enough to vaccinate everyone considered most at risk.
Texas will receive 1.1 million doses of the vaccine a week for three weeks and 1.5 million a week after that, said James Zoretic, regional medical director for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
A department spokesman said the first shipments could arrive as soon as early October – though no date is yet certain.
The numbers were released at a regional pandemic influenza conference in Arlington, attended by state and local health officials.
Also on Thursday, U.S. and Australian researchers announced findings that one shot of the vaccine, rather than two, should adequately protect adults from the disease.
The H1N1 vaccine, which is different from the one for seasonal flu, will be distributed to hospitals and clinics with guidelines to inoculate priority population groups – pregnant women, people 6 months to 24 years old, and those ages 64 or younger who have certain medical conditions, among others.
Several counties, including Dallas and Tarrant, have stopped counting cases of swine flu. Instead, health officials monitor emergency room reports of fevers, coughs and sore throats to gauge the disease's spread.
So far, such reports are up about 5 percent over the same period last year – a "slight uptick," said John Carlo, medical director for Dallas County Health and Human Services.
He said officials will be carefully watching that number to see if it increases over the flu season.
Officials are also monitoring school absentee rates for signs of classroom outbreaks. So far, those numbers are "fluctuating" quite a bit, said Carlo.
He cautioned that erratic absentee rates are not unusual for the beginning of the school year.
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