Many local school systems already have experience giving a flu nose spray to vaccinate elementary schoolchildren, but state officials hope local schools will take on much of the job of vaccinating the approximately 1 million school-age children in Maryland against swine flu, probably in late September or early October.
The vaccine will be voluntary, and parents will have to sign a form authorizing the school to give it.
Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County school officials say they're prepared for mass vaccination.
"We would be ready to jump in," said Deborah Somerville, coordinator of health services for Baltimore County.
Anne Arundel, which has offered seasonal flu vaccines to 32,000 elementary schoolchildren for the past several years, has prepared contingency plans in case schools are closed. The system practiced sending word through automated telephone calls when one of its schools was shut down by the state last spring. Over the summer, officials have considered how they might offer homework assignments online or teach on the Internet, Mosier said.
The CDC no longer requires local health officials and doctors to test patients to see if they have H1N1, so unless a major outbreak occurs, schools are unlikely to know whether students are sick with the seasonal flu or H1N1. But officials expect more total flu cases this year.
College students are vulnerable to the virus for many reasons. They haven't built up as many immunities as older people, they live in close, often unclean quarters and they weaken their immune systems through partying and poor nutrition.
Adults ages 19 to 24 are listed among the high-risk groups for H1N1 by the CDC. But within that group, they're among the lowest priorities to receive vaccine, behind pregnant women, younger children, health professionals and others.
When the vaccine arrives, it might not be easy to persuade students to be inoculated, said Jennifer Lepus, director of student health at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The university orders 500 seasonal flu shots a year, but most are used by faculty and staff members. "A lot of students say, 'If I get the flu, it's no big deal,' " Lepus said.
She's not sure if that will change with H1N1. "It's definitely on the parents' minds," Lepus said. "It does feel a little bit different this year. There's a new sense of preparedness."
