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Swine flu clinics under way this week for students, doctors

Staff Photo by KATY KUEHNER

Michael Schuller, a student at Madeira Beach Middle School, gets a swine flu shot today from Althea White of the Pinellas County Health Department.

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TBO.com

Published: November 9, 2009

TAMPA - This weekm schools in Pinellas County start swine flu vaccinations today, Hillsborough and Manatee schools continue their vaccination program and health care workers can get free vaccinations.

As more swine flu vaccine becomes available in the Tampa Bay area, in its nasal mist and injectable form, health departments are scheduling clinics and making the vaccine available to health care providers.

Few areas nationwide have enough of the vaccine yet to make it widely available to the general population. Clinics so far are limited to those most susceptible to the disease, including children, and those at greatest risk of complications should they catch it.

The program starts today in Pinellas schools with clinics at 16 campuses.

The district's complete schedule, available here , runs through Nov. 20. Shots are being offered during school hours.

Consent forms and other information is available at the district's swine flu page here. If parents will not be present for the vaccine, students can only receive it by filling out the consent form before the date of the clinic.

In Hillsborough, four high schools and one elementary school will open after school this week for free swine flu vaccinations. The schools are Plant City, Riverview, Sickles and Tampa Bay Technical high schools and Sulphur Springs Elementary.

The complete list of Hillsborough school clinics this week can be found here .

Students must have a signed permission slip and elementary school stduents must have a parent or guardian present, and are welcome to visit the most convenient site. Those participating in home-schooling, virtual and charter school programs also are eligible to receive the vaccine at these sites.

No vaccine will be administered in Hillsborough during the week of Thanksgiving.

In Manatee, a series of seven after-school clinics for elementary school students started Friday and runs through Nov. 17. Consent forms are required and parents of guardians must be present. The complete schedule can be found here .

In addition, local doctors and their staffs can receive free swine flu vaccine from noon to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Hillsborough County Medical Association, 606 S. Boulevard in Tampa.

Healthcare and medical services professionals are among the groups encouraged to get swine flu vaccinations as soon as they are available to protect themselves and their patients from getting swine flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Protection has said.

"It is especially important that we receive the vaccine to protect ourselves and our patients," said Dr. Humberto Coto, president of the Hillsborough medical association.

Coto also encouraged doctors to partner with the Hillsborough County Health Department to become vaccine providers.

Information on how to do is available here .

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