Program will vaccinate students for flu in city schools

A pilot project to provide flu vaccine to Lynchburg schoolchildren in grades 4-8 will be launched in mid-November by the Central Virginia Health District.

An estimated 3,000 Lynchburg children are in that age group, said Dr. Kerry Gateley, district health director.

“We have high hopes the program design will work smoothly and in future years we will be able to greatly expand (to other localities),” he said.

A small version of the program was tested last year with Johnson Health Services and Lynchburg schools, Gateley said.

The plan is to go the no-needle route, with the nasal administration of the influenza vaccine FluMist at a cost of $10 per child.

The program is voluntary; Gateley said health officials will be pleased if it reaches at least half of the target population.

The project comes as the Virginia Department of Health is encouraging parents to get influenza vaccines for children 5 years old and up — a statewide population of 1.3 million children. Central Virginia has some 47,000 children between the ages of five and 19, according to department of health data.

That state advice, announced in a news release, reflects the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention new recommendations that children ages 5 to 18 years should get the vaccine. Again, as last year, the CDC urges the flu vaccination of children six months old to 4 years old. It also recommends that pregnant women get the vaccine.

Influenza season usually runs November through March, peaking in February.

Gateley said that administering the vaccine for the pilot project likely will begin in mid-November, which allows time for distribute consent forms and get signed copies back.

“Parents will start seeing the consent forms as early as Oct. 14,” he said. “This is a totally voluntary program — there’s nothing mandatory about it.”

Routine immunization clinics will continue at local health departments.

One reason health officials settled on the grades 4-8 range is that children age 9 and up need only one dose, while younger ones need two doses one month apart. With the sheer volume of children, setting up the logistics during the pilot program meant a necessary limiting of the age groups.

“In future years, we hope we’ll be able to expand to the younger children,” he said.

Gateley said the pilot program should result in a decrease in numbers of flu-associated illness this year. That’s part of the reason for eliminating the shot.

The FluMist vaccine uses a pre-measured dose in each nostril and the process is quick. “No need to get sleeves rolled up — no need for the Band-Aid or theatrics,” he said.

The public health goal is to assure that children don’t get the flu — the schools and the close contact the children have “are a great environment to pass flu along, to take it home, or with them when they go visit grandma.”

If enough children get immunized, Gateley said, “It may be possible to keep the level of flu down in the entire community.”