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Pinellas schools commence swine flu battle

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By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8

Published: November 9, 2009

MADEIRA BEACH - Students in Pinellas County public schools today started receiving the H1N1 vaccine.

The school district, along with the Pinellas County Health Department, launched the mass vaccination effort at 16 schools. And the plan is to rotate the mini-clinics to different schools each day.

"Wonderful, I think it's a great thing that they're offering it," said Paula Nixon, whose daughter, Grace, attends Madeira Beach Middle School. "There are about 1,300 children at this school, K through 8, and that's a lot of children they're exposed to on a daily basis."

The vaccination is free at the schools, but it does require parents to sign consent forms. Parents must also decide which form of the vaccine, nasal or shot, they want for their child.

School officials said about 25 percent of the district's 107,000 students turned in the forms. They believe, however, the final number may go much higher because many children are bringing the forms to the make-shift clinics.

This type of mass immunization through Pinellas County schools is unusual, said to Maggie Hall, spokeswoman for the health department. The last time in the county undertook such an effort was for polio, which was about 50 years ago.

"That was thousands of kids in one day ... and polio was eradicated," Hall said. "In the case of H1N1, it's really important to vaccinate children right now."

The goal of the school district is to make the vaccine available to all students before the Thanksgiving break, which Nov. 23-27, because children younger than 9 must have a second booster vaccine 21 days after the first dose.

Reporter Yolanda Fernandez can be reached (813) 221-5708.

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