Mobile Co. Schools Give H1N1 Vaccines

Alabama's largest school district has started giving students the H1N1 flu vaccine.

Mobile County began administering the flu mist in four schools Tuesday morning.  Students at the Regional School For The Deaf And Blind, Augusta Evans, Just Four Developmental Laboratory and Dauphin Island Elementary were among the first to receive the vaccine.

Participation in the free immunization clinics has been much lower than state officials expected.   Mobile County has 4,000 doses of the nasal mist vaccine on hand to give to students this week, but during the first day of clinics only sixty doses were administered.

"You hear more of the cons than the pros," says Erika Simon, who believes many parents are leary of the nasal mist vaccine.   Simon signed up her son despite other parents' concerns.  "When he was ten months old he had a bout with meningitis, and from that point on I've been getting him flu vaccines just to make sure."

In Alabama, only two out of every ten parents are signing their kids up for the nasal mist immunization.  That is a lower response than schools in Mississippi, which offers the H1N1 flu shot.   Fourty-percent of students in Missisippi are participating.

Mobile County is planning vaccination clinics in each of their schools, though they have not yet released a list of dates.   School officials were forced to delay some of the scheduled clinics because there was a language barrier with the consent forms.   Immunization information in different languages is expected to be available by December 6. 

Baldwin County, Clarke County, Washington County and Saraland schools will begin their clinics Thursday.