Goshen Community Schools initiated its first line of defense against the H1N1 flu virus Tuesday with a mass vaccination of students at Goshen Middle School.
Administered through the Elkhart County Health Department, the vaccination program at GMS is among the first in a planned countywide push to get all school-age students vaccinated within the next few weeks.
“We are the first GCS school to receive the vaccinations, and then the department is scheduled to be at the high school at a later date, and then move to the elementary schools,” said GMS Principal Ann Eaton. “All parents had to sign permission slips for their students to participate, and we had a little over 700 students sign up.”
With approximately 1,365 students spread across three grade levels, students vaccinated at GMS Tuesday account for nearly 50 percent of the school’s total population — a number that Eaton said is quite significant considering the short amount of time the school had to prepare for the clinic.
“We only found out last Thursday that it was happening today,” Eaton said. “We really had to scramble because we had to cancel the clinic we had scheduled for Oct. 23 due to a lack of vaccine.”
School nurse and GCS Wellness Coordinator Susan Stiffney agreed.
“When you consider how many permission slips we’ve had returned, I think the support by parents of the vaccine has been phenomenal,” Stiffney said. “I think the health department has done a great job of getting the message out that this vaccine is important.”
Absences higher than normal
While the rate of flu contraction at the school is still considered to be in the low to moderate range, Stiffney said infection rates do appear to be up compared to same time period in previous years — a fact that makes clinics like those conducted at the school Tuesday all the more important.
“We’ve been tracking attendance rates since September, and nothing has fallen to a dangerous level. But we have had absences,” Stiffney said. “Nothing has fallen real low, but it seems higher than normal for this time of year.”
During Tuesday’s clinic, students were called to the school’s auditorium in alphabetical order by grade level where the shots were then administered by a group of County Health Department nurses.
There were 12 nurses from the health department situated at the tables, along with parent volunteers and the director of the county health department.
“It has really been a constant flow, moving very quickly,” Eaton said, “With the eighth grade we were able to finish in a half hour, and seventh grade was the same way.”
To ensure each student’s vaccination was recorded accurately, the department also had several employees present with the specific task of entering the student’s information into a statewide immunization database.
“Each of the kids have a name tag that matches the label on their permission slip,” Eaton said. “Once the vaccine has been administered, the people in the back enter the student’s information into the statewide database making sure it’s recorded that the kids have had the H1N1 vaccination.”
Given the relative newness of such school-wide vaccination clinics, Elkhart County Health Officer Dan Nafziger was particularly impressed with the smoothness in which the day’s events proceeded.
“Its been going very well so far,” Nafziger said. “I’ve been really pleased with how organized the Goshen schools have been, and our staff have been working hard, so we’re getting the kids through very quickly.”
According to Nafziger, the GMS vaccination program is only the second of such clinics the department has ever conducted.
Students at Northridge High School were vaccinated Monday. But, Nafziger said, in terms of school-based clinics for influenza, this is something new.
“The overall plan,” Nafziger said, is to basically vaccinate all the school children in Elkhart County whose parents are willing to consent for them to be vaccinated.”
While such a plan is admittedly a massive undertaking requiring thousands of doses of the H1N1 vaccine, Nafziger said he is confident that all students who are slated to receive the vaccine will get it — though it may not happen as quickly as some may like.
“Well we intend to have enough vaccine to do everyone who’s interested in getting it eventually, but really we’re still working on kind of a day-by-day basis,” Nafziger said. “In general we’ve been getting a shipment or two every week, so it looks like we’ve got enough vaccine to go ahead with some more clinics this week. But even as far out as next week, we’re still waiting to see exactly what vaccine we get in.”
Nafziger said they are planning to vaccinate Elkhart Memorial students Thursday and another school Friday.
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