Pregnant women
People who live with or care for infants younger than 6 months of age
Healthcare and emergency medical personnel
Anyone from 6 months through 24 years if age
Anyone from 25 through 64 years of age with certain chronic medical conditions or a weakened immune system

Individuals aged 25-64 years with medical conditions are high risk for influenza complications & are vaccine priority group. What exactly are these high-risk conditions?

Chronic medical conditions that confer a higher risk for influenza-related complications include:

chronic pulmonary (including asthma, COPD),
cardiovascular (except hypertension),
renal (kidney)
hepatic (liver disease, hepatitis)
neurologic/neuromuscular (eg. Multiple sclerosis)
Hematologic (blood disorders)
metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus)
immunosuppression (including immunosuppression caused by medications or by human immunodeficiency virus)

What are the different types of vaccine that might be available?

Intranasal mist - can be given to individuals 2-49 without chronic conditions
Injectable vaccine - there are several different types and each one is licensed for a specific age group.

Who should not receive a flu vaccine?

Individuals who have ever had:

Asevere, life threatening allergy to eggs or to any other substance in the vaccine.
A life-threatening allergic reaction after a dose of seasonal flu vaccine.
Guillian-Barre Syndrome (a severe paralytic illness also called GBS).

Who needs to receive 2 doses of the H1N1 vaccine?

Any child under the age of 10 years of age.

When do children need to receive the second dose of H1N1 vaccine?

There needs to be a minimum of 28 days between doses.

Why do children under the age of 10 need to receive two doses of the H1N1 vaccine?

Children under the age of 10 years require 2 doses of the H1N1 to achieve an adequate immune response to protect them from getting the H1N1 flu. Children who have only received one dose are not fully protected against the flu.

Why are we giving second doses to children when there are a lot of people in the high risk groups that haven’t been able to receive their first doses?

At the SLVHD we are providing the second vaccine to any child who received their previous dose at least 28 days ago. Although we are not saving vaccine for second doses, we are not refusing second doses of the vaccine to children who need their dose.

Can the live nasal-spray be given to close contacts of pregnant women?

Yes.

Are there any contraindications to giving breastfeeding mothers the 2009 H1N1 vaccine?

Breastfeeding mothers can receive either the intranasal or the injectable vaccine.