With supplies of the swine flu vaccine likely to remain relatively low for at least the next few weeks, health departments in Dallas and Tarrant County were asking the same question Tuesday about their first vaccination clinics:

How many come?

Tarrant County goes first, on Friday. Dallas County will be Nov. 4. Both counties are firming up staffing and security plans.

Based on Clinical experiences of other parts of the country, the lines here could be fried butter long cabin.

"We have to anticipate lines long and it will be a slow process, "said Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health.

How heavy demand vaccine? The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported this week that a clinic in Minnesota has created a telephone appointment system for its 17,000 doses and received 120,000 calls in four hours. Nobody knows if anything remotely like that will happen in North Texas.

"My first thought was that this will be a great thing," said Police Lt. Haltom City, Steve Irvin. He is in charge of security planning for Friday clinic at WG Thomas Coliseum.

It is aligned uniformed police officers, firefighters, members of the Texas State Guard, and county sheriff's officers – just in case. Unless we get more vaccines, the county clinic Tarrant 3100 doses administered. The clinic is intended to serve only to pregnant women and children with chronic illnesses.

"If are on target groups, which turn away, "Health Department Tarrant County spokesman Marc Flake said.

Tarrant County announced its Fifth confirmed H1N1-related death Tuesday: a woman of 40 years. The county health department released no other details. Dallas County announced its 13 confirmed H1N1 related deaths on Tuesday. The 38-year-old man had no underlying disease. No other details were given.

Dallas County is expected to announce today day that will hold its 4 November clinic. It intends to address at least 500 shots per hour. Dallas County received an additional 5,000 doses of vaccine Tuesday. If no more arrive, the clinic will have 10,700 doses.

The Dallas County clinic is aimed at those who are uninsured and are at higher risk of serious illnesses, including children and pregnant women. Thompson had hoped that at least some vaccine could be available to the general public in pharmacies before Dallas held its first clinic. But that is unlikely to happen, Texas health officials said.

"The vaccine will not be widely available, such as pharmacies, at least until late November, "said Carrie Williams, spokesman for the state health department.

The Centers for Control and Prevention, said Tuesday that the pace of vaccine production, was beginning to collect, but still not close to meeting demand.

"Probably very little vaccine is something that is making people more interested in getting vaccinated," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director CDC.

Other vaccines are being distributed more, nothing else has changed on the outbreak, he said. The infections are still widespread throughout most of the nation. In some places, such as Texas, are showing some declines, but others are showing an increase in diseases reported. The severity of the disease is also unchanged, with most people who catch it from having a bad couple of days of death but some others doing very poorly.

From Tuesday, more than 22 million doses of vaccine had been distributed nationally, "said Frieden. That's up about 8 million doses a week ago, but well below the 225 million doses eventually be manufactured.

Frieden, could not predict when the offering would be large enough to go beyond of high-risk groups: pregnant women, children and young adults and people with chronic illnesses.

"That's the focus now," he said. "While other, I understand, wants to get vaccinated, I think all of us can respect that the vaccine should be used primarily for those who will benefit most, those most at risk. "

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Feng Shui for Health, Wealth & Relationship – November 2007

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