PITTSFIELD -- With the distribution pace of the swine flu vaccine progressing from a crawl to a shuffle, officials are urging patience as supplies slowly reach the Berkshires and the H1N1 strain continues to sicken people statewide.
County health officials say most pregnant women -- the highest priority group on the vaccination list -- have already been inoculated against H1N1, while vaccination clinics for county school children are poised to begin.
The problem is the vaccine is not widely available. Only small amounts of the flu-fighting drug have arrived in the Berkshires. And those doses are already accounted for, which means vaccination clinics for the general public won't begin in earnest until December, health officials said this week.
On Friday, the Pittsfield School District began sending home swine-flu information packets that include parental consent forms allowing children to get inoculated at school-run clinics. Those clinics will begin once the vaccine arrives, Superintendent Howard "Jake" Eberwein III said Friday.
"We're all ready," he said. "We've done the planning."
Pittsfield's 12-school, 6,200-student district is the largest in the county, which required school officials to devise a flu action plan. For now, that plan calls for vaccinating children in grades six through 12 during regular school hours, and vaccinating children in pre-kindergarten through grade five after school hours. That way, Eberwein said, parents or guardians
"There's a lot of conjecture about what percentage of our parents are going to have their children vaccinated," Eberwein said. "This is totally optional."
As fears of swine flu spread faster than the flu itself, and school officials grapple with plans to attack the virus, the number of students who showed up at Pittsfield and North Adams schools fell sharply over the past couple of weeks.
Pittsfield's overall school district attendance rate fell to a low of 84 percent on Oct. 29, according to Eberwein, with one school registering a low of 75 percent. By November, however, the overall attendance rate was inching closer to 90 percent. That's still about 4 percent lower than the normal attendance rate for this time of year, Eberwein said.
"The first wave of absenteeism hit the high schools, then the middle and elementary schools. Every school, at some point over the past two weeks, has gotten to about 18 percent [absenteeism] at some point, with some schools reaching 24 to 25 percent out," Eberwein said. "The good news is that we've cycled out of it."
North Adams School Superintendent James Montepare said his district -- the second largest in the county -- experienced a similar spike in absenteeism last week, when as many as 30 to 35 percent of all students did not show up for school.
Luckily, he said, the spike lasted only a few days, and students are now trickling back to school.
"It was hard to judge why [absenteeism rose] for that very brief period," Montepare said, adding that health concerns probably played a role.
"I think people are very cautious about [swine flu]," he said, adding that North Adams schools will begin offering student inoculation clinics by the end of this month.
The Mount Greylock Regional School District is ready to begin vaccination clinics, beginning with students at smaller schools before moving onto larger schools. The problem, said Superintendent William Travis, is waiting for enough vaccine to arrive to service every student seeking a shot.
"It's like 'hurry up and wait,'" said Travis, noting that the school has been collecting parental permission slips for about two weeks.
Drug manufacturers have struggled to keep up with high demand for the H1N1 vaccine, leading to its slower-than-expected delivery throughout the United States. Massachusetts has so far only received enough vaccine to inoculate about one-sixth of its 6.5 million residents, though state health officials expect to receive about 3.5 million doses this flu season.
"What I can tell you is that the vaccine is trickling into the county," said Sandra Martin, the public health emergency planner for the Berkshire County Boards of Health Association.
The association serves as a clearinghouse for various health departments throughout the Berkshires and is overseeing the countywide distribution effort -- particularly for municipal and school-based clinics. Other venues, such as Berkshire Medical Center, are also registered to receive and distribute the vaccine, but BMC will not be holding public clinics.
"Berkshire Medical Center applied for distribution of the vaccine in order to meet its internal needs and those of our affiliated physician practices," hospital spokesman Michael Leary said Friday. "Any public clinics for central Berkshire will be coordinated by the Pittsfield Health Department. In other words, the hospital will not be doing any public clinics."
Martin said the North Adams Board of Health will coordinate vaccine clinics for North County, while Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington will coordinate clinics for South County. Locations, dates and times will be announced once details are finalized.
Martin was unable to immediately calculate how much vaccine is bound for the Berkshires. But, she added, "There will be enough vaccine for anyone who wants it."
Now that most pregnant county women have sought swine flu protection, the focus has shifted to school-age children. One of the more time-consuming steps, though, is getting parents to grant permission for children to receive swine flu shots, which are perfectly safe, according to Martin.
"Getting permission slips back from parents is a huge task," she said.
"We're beginning school clinics and eventually we hope to -- by the end of the month or in December -- start public clinics," Martin said. "But we want to take care of our priority groups first: Our priorities are pregnant women and small children and people with underlying health conditions."
The Obama administration has declared a national emergency related to the H1N1 influenza outbreak, while the World Health Organization this week announced that the swine flu virus is now the world's predominant flu strain.
In the U.S., swine flu is widespread in 48 states, officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. CDC officials said 129 children have died from swine flu complications since the virus was first identified in April.
The government does not keep a close count of all swine flu deaths, but estimates the number is above 1,000. Many millions of Americans have been infected with the virus, though most suffered only mild illness.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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