Pinellas plans swine flu vaccinations during school hours

Students in Pinellas County public high schools and middle schools will receive the voluntary swine flu vaccinations during regular school hours.

Health and school officials have not set a date, though.

Plans for school vaccinations also are shaping up in other Bay area counties.

The Pinellas district is urging parents of elementary students to be present for their vaccines, which are scheduled for the end of the day, spokeswoman Andrea Zahn said.

Alternative arrangements will be made for those children whose parents or guardians cannot attend, she said.

Parents should start receiving information packets in the next few weeks, said Pinellas health department spokeswoman Maggie Hall. The packets contain a consent form that is mandatory for any vaccination and spells out the options: nasal spray or shot.

Neither have the preservative thimerosal, Hall said. The flu shot contains a "killed" virus, but the nasal mist is made with a weakened live virus. It is not suitable for small children or for others who have underlying health conditions such as asthma or a history of Guillain-Barr Syndrome.

Parent packets will also include an assessment to help health care workers determine if the child can receive the vaccine and information on risks associated with it.

Parents who don't want their children vaccinated can simply refrain from returning the consent forms, Hall said.

Here are developments in other area school districts:

Hillsborough County

The school district announced its vaccines would begin Oct. 19.

Health care workers will vaccinate middle and high school students at their own schools during school hours. The children must have signed permission slips.

Children in elementary school will receive their vaccines at designated high schools from 3 to 7 p.m. and possibly later, depending on demand. A parent or guardian must be present.

The Hillsborough district will announce next week when elementary students will be vaccinated.

Automated phone messages on the ParentLink system and the district's Web site, www.sdhc.k12.fl.us, will carry updates.

Polk

Polk County has not released vaccination dates as of yet, said local health department director Daniel Haight.

Officials want to wait until they have ample supplies of the vaccine in mist or shot form.

"We don't' want to start and stop," he said.

Once the vaccines begin, they likely will start on one side of the county and "roll" to the other side, Haight said.

Pasco

Pasco schools will offer students the vaccine later in the month, said school district spokeswoman Summer Romagnoli. Letters will go out to parents next week, she said.