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Flu is still a danger; vaccine for public available

Local health officials offer flu clinic to the public on Monday, urge more vigilance.

When, where can you get H1N1 vaccine?

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By Anthony Gottschlich, Staff Writer Updated 9:55 PM Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The swine flu “scare” of 2009 isn’t what it used to be, it seems, judging by the quieter emergency departments and shorter lines at vaccine clinics this month in the Dayton area.

But don’t tell that to Shirley Moore of Northridge. H1N1 killed her 40-year-old son, Craig Moore, on Thanksgiving Day.

“He was a good, kind-hearted person; he’d do anything for anybody,” Moore said Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Craig Moore died eight days after entering Good Samaritan Hospital with breathing troubles but no fever or other signs of flu, his mother said. He became the first Montgomery County resident to die from H1N1, according to Ohio Department of Health records.

Local and state health officials say Moore’s death, as well as 40 others in Ohio this year, underscores the importance of remaining vigilant and getting an H1N1 vaccine as soon as possible.

“We’re still continuing to report widespread flu activity,” said Kristopher Weiss, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health. “Not only are we seeing a lot of H1N1 circulating, but we’re getting into what would be the traditional flu season as well.”

To date, local health departments have held vaccine clinics for high-risk groups, such as children, pregnant women and health care workers. But they’ll start opening the clinics to the general public next week, including a clinic Monday from 1 to 7 p.m. at Hara Arena.

Local reports of H1N1 cases peaked in October, when hospital emergency departments swelled with patients reporting flulike symptoms.

At Children’s Medical Center of Dayton, for instance, the hospital conducted 263 flu tests on Oct. 13, the most on any one day this year, with 111 coming back positive for flu, according to spokeswoman Betsy Woods. By last Thursday, however, the number of tests dropped to 15, with none positive.

Still, Weiss cautioned, the flu virus is unpredictable, and along with pneumonia it kills 3,000 Ohioans every year.

“The flu season in Ohio goes well into the next year,” he said. “It might be down from where it was, but it’s still higher than we typically see at this point in a typical flu season.”

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