Memphis Nurse Goes First as U.S. Starts Vaccinating
孟菲斯护士成为美国首批疫苗接种者MEMPHIS — Holly Smith, a pediatric nurse and mother of two girls, became the first American to get a dose of swine flu vaccine in the national rollout that began Monday.
“I did this for my kids,” Ms. Smith said. And, speaking of the infants she cares for, she added that since babies are not born with fully functioning immune systems, “it’s real important for us to take that first step.”
Ms. Smith works at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center here, which has been on the front lines of the epidemic since it began to surge across Southern states in late August.
Three children have died of flu-related illnesses at the hospital in the last six weeks, and 20 others have been in intensive care. (Across the country, 60 children have died of flu-related illnesses since the swine flu appeared in April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.)
Le Bonheur received 100 doses of nasal spray vaccine and, with officials of the disease control centers watching, quickly began giving them to key employees in the outdoor tent it has set up so children with flu symptoms can be seen separately. The hospital has seen at least 3,000 children with flu symptoms recently, said Dr. Keith English, its infectious-disease director.
A similar vaccine-rollout ceremony with state and federal officials present took place Monday in Marion County, Ind., which includes Indianapolis. Officials there received 5,200 doses and immediately distributed them to local hospitals.
The first doses arriving are in nasal spray form, which is approved only for people 2 to 49 years old with no health problems. But officials expect 10 to 20 million doses, in spray or injectable form, to be delivered each week until December.
As supplies increase and vaccination sites are selected, state health departments are expected to set up hot-line numbers and Web pages on which anyone can type in a ZIP code and find the nearest center offering vaccine. Eventually, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of immunization and respiratory disease for the C.D.C., there will be a similar page on flu.gov, the federal Web site.
John Branston reported from Memphis, and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New York.
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