Central Texas Christian School students were stopped at the school library door. They handed over paperwork to Marcine Chambers, clinical research coordinator at Scott & White, who then asked the students their name, birth date and whether they had received the seasonal flu vaccine.
A few hesitated on the birth date query before continuing on to a nurse, who did some further questioning and eventually sprayed the FluMist up their noses. The only tears came from a youngster who was accompanied by his mother.
"If I wasn't here I'm sure he'd be fine," she said.
On Thursday, students at Central Texas Christian School, Christ Church and St. Mary's received the H1N1 FluMist vaccine. Today, teams from Scott & White will begin vaccinating students in the Belton school district, but eventually all of the schools that participate in the seasonal flu study will be offered the H1N1 vaccine.
"Right now, we only have the H1N1 mist and we'll be getting the H1N1 shots through the state," said Dr. Manju Gaglani, local principal investigator of the Vaccines for Influenza Prevention in Schools and associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Scott & White. "We're kind of waiting in line just like everybody else."
The injections Gaglani receives will be used for children who can't take the FluMist and for school staff 50 years of age and older. FluMist is only approved for use in vaccinating people 2 years through 49 years of age who are not pregnant and do not have certain chronic health conditions.
"I have 10,000 doses on hand and can get, more or less, as many as we need," Gaglani said.
Gaglani said her team's 10-year history with the Vaccines for Influenza Prevention in Schools study paved the way in getting the H1N1 vaccines for local students.
"We have shown with the seasonal vaccine that we can indeed deliver it and this process can serve as a model on how to get this done for the rest of the country," she said. "Hopefully, we can publish this soon so other people can use what we have experienced."
Though the seasonal flu vaccination program in the schools was completed in September, the vaccination program continues in Scott & White's pediatric clinic.
If a parent wants to have a child vaccinated for both seasonal flu and H1N1, it's possible by giving the seasonal flu in the shot form and the H1N1 FluMist, Gaglani said.
"If they want the seasonal mist, then we have to have a four-week gap between the pandemic mist and seasonal mist," she said. "When it becomes available, the seasonal shot and pandemic shot can be done on the same day."
School children who haven't had their 10th birthday on the day they receive the first H1N1 dose will need to get a booster a month later. Second dose forms will be given to the younger students when they receive the first H1N1 vaccination.
"We will continue to vaccinate through January," Gaglani said.
Cases of the H1N1 flu are on the increase locally, in Bell County and the surrounding areas, she said.
"At Scott & White we're having over 400 positive tests a week and that's only counting those being tested," Gaglani said. The urgent care pediatric clinic had been seeing 60 children a day, half with flu-like illnesses.
Right now, the main circulating virus is H1N1. Typically, at this time of year there would be more upper and lower respiratory infections showing up in the clinics, but that's not the case, she said.
According to the Temple school district, more students have flu-like symptoms, but attendance has held steady.
Gaglani said she's getting students in Belton and Temple vaccinated first for the H1N1 flu, so she can have the most impact in the shortest period of time.
"I'm hoping in the next two weeks I'll get 10,000 kids vaccinated," she said. "That's where the population is."
Since the H1N1 flu is already in circulation, there will be some who get the FluMist and then come down with the flu, because they were exposed prior to getting vaccinated.
"They'll think the FluMist made them ill, but I'm kind of ready for that," Gaglani said.
