3 more deaths blamed on flu

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 10, 2009 - Page: 1A

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Three more people in Louisiana have died from complications of swine flu — including a man and a woman from the seven-parish area that includes East Baton Rouge — bringing the total to 33 deaths in the state since August, officials said Monday.

Meanwhile, more vaccine is arriving in the state weekly.

About 390,000 doses of vaccine have been delivered across the state, with about 57,000 doses administered since the program started, a state Department of Health and Hospitals official said.

Two or three weeks ago, the state had received only a fraction of the vaccine it had ordered — because the vaccine took more time to produce than manufacturers initially estimated.

“Those were very rough weeks,” said Dr. Frank Welch, medical director of Pandemic Readiness for the state. “It has finally picked up. We got in about 160,000 doses last week.”

All of the hospitals in the state that registered with DHH and ordered vaccine have received it, Welch said.

Hospitals in St. Tammany Parish and in Shreveport have enough in stock to plan mass vaccinations, he said.

“We’re really hoping other providers will do the same thing,” he said.

The 84 parish health units have also received some H1N1 vaccine, Welch said.

“They don’t have enough of a quantity yet to do a mass vaccination,” he added. “But they should be able to do that soon.”

Dr. Marilyn Reynaud, regional medical director for the Office of Public Health, Region II, said Monday that East Baton Rouge Parish’s health unit does have swine flu vaccine.

“But I can’t promise they’ll have it tomorrow morning,” she said. “I would suggest everyone should call first and make sure they have it.”

Also last week, the first shipment of H1N1 vaccine that can be given to babies ages six months to 24 months finally arrived.