By PETER GREER

greer@crescent-news.com

Fall is in the air, and once again the time has come for hot chocolate, warm sweaters -- and flu shots.

Although many area health care providers have yet to receive their annual dosage of flu vaccine, word is out that supplies of the preventative medicine are good this year.

Hospitals in Defiance and Hicksville report supplies to inoculate their own staffs are on order and should be here sometime in October, with shots available to the general public shortly afterward.

"Usually (Hicksville's) individual physicians order theirs," says Betty Rife, R.N., at Community Memorial Hospital.

"Every health care entity (dispenses shots) on their own," echoes nursing director Laura Coressel of Defiance County Health Department. "As of yet, the Ohio Department of Health has not sent out its criteria."

Though some hospitals await orders and vaccine shipments, many county health departments are already planning specific shot times and places.

While the general public can go to specific towns and sites throughout shot season, the health department buildings are usually the most common places to become immunized.

In Defiance County, the health department's first mass flu shot clinic will begin at Defiance High School from 4-8 p.m. Oct. 16 and will be open to the public. "We'll set up schedules after the 16th," says Coressel.

While there is no particular deviation from the norm as per who may need a flu shot most, Coressel wants to deflate a popular myth that comes about annually about this time.

"You cannot get the flu from a flu shot," she notes. "This is an inactivated virus. Your arm will get a little sore occasionally, but you won't get the flu from the shot."

Flu virus, she adds, is made up of past flu strains, to which the strain of the previous season have been added. "They pick up the circulating strain and add that in," she says.

She further adds those who experience allergic reactions to flu vaccines should not get a shot; nor should children under the age of six months.

Those who are most at risk from the flu -- and are therefore the most likely to benefit from a vaccine -- include senior citizens aged 65 or older; children aged six months to 35 months; women in any stage of pregnancy; and those suffering from chronic illness such as AIDS/HIV; asthma; diabetes; heart or kidney disease; immune suppression; sickle cell anemia; and anyone on long-term aspirin therapy. Flu shots are also recommended for anyone up to age 19 as well as those who live with them and caregivers such as baby-sitters.

According to Pamela Pflum, director of nursing at the Henry County Health Department, this is the first year the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended vaccinations for all children ages six months and up.

"Every year 200,000 people are hospitalized from the flu," she says, "including 20,000 kids. Healthy children have died from the flu (who) have had no other health problems."

Additionally, annual flu vaccines are highly recommended by health care professionals, particularly for children.

Vaccines, Pflum notes, can have much farther-reaching effects than simply immunizing one individual. "It's called herd immunity," she says. "Children shed the viruses before they get sick. If we immunize the kids, the virus won't get back to parents, other caregivers, et cetera."

The same mentality, she says, is meant for health care workers who are vaccinated as part of their job; the resulting immune care professionals protect patients from the disease.

Children up to nine years of age will need two flu shots the first year they are vaccinated. The Center for Disease Control recommends children receive the first dose of vaccine as soon as it becomes available, with the second dose to follow in at least 28 days. The first dose introduces the system to the vaccine, with the second providing immunization.

October Flu Shot Schedule

(all open to the public unless otherwise noted)

Defiance County

Health Department

Oct. 16: First mass clinic at Defiance High School, 4-8 p.m., with more to follow. The flu shot is available to persons six months of age and older. The cost of the vaccine is $15 for those 3 years and older and $9 for those 6 months to 35 months. Cash, checks with photo ID, Medicaid and Medicare are accepted as payment. For those who have difficulty walking or standing, the health department will also be offering the drive-through clinic. Simply drive up and the nurse will come to the car to administer the vaccine.

Defiance Clinic

Vaccinations will be provided from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 1:30-4:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 6 every Monday, Thursday and Friday. Those coming for shots are asked to go to the information desk at the west entrance to register.

Williams County

Health Department

Oct. 21: Edon Senior Center, 10-11:30 a.m.; Edgerton Senior Center, 1-2:30 p.m. Vaccine will also be distributed that day to residents of Dream Haven nursing care center, Edgerton.

Oct. 22: Montpelier Senior Center, 9:30-11:30 a.m.; Pioneer Senior Center, 1-2:30 p.m.

Oct. 23: Stryker Senior Center, 10:30-11:30 a.m.; West Unity Senior Center, 1-2:30 p.m.

Oct. 24: Bryan Senior Center, 10-11:30 a.m.

Beginning Oct. 27, flu shots will be given out daily at Williams County Health Department offices in Bryan from 1-4 p.m. and in Montpelier from 3:30-4:15 p.m. for ages 18 and up.

The shots will cost $25, or recipients can bring Medicare cards.

Children under 18 can receive shots from 1-4:30 p.m. at both the Bryan department on Tuesdays and the Montpelier department on Thursdays.

Shots for children may be received in Montpelier from 1-6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month.

Paulding County

Oct. 10: Paulding County Health Department, 8:30-11:30 a.m.; 1-3:30 p.m.

Oct. 14: Oakwood School, 9-11 a.m.

Oct. 16: Paulding County Health Department, 8:30-11:30 a.m.; 1-5 p.m.

Oct. 17: Antwerp School, 9:30 a.m.-12 noon.

Oct. 21: Payne School, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Oct. 23: Grover Hill School, 9:30 a.m.-12 noon.

Oct. 24: Paulding County Health Department, 8:30-11:30 a.m.; 1-3:30 p.m.

Oct. 27: Paulding County Health Department, 3-5 p.m.

Oct. 31: Paulding County Health Department, 8:30-11:30 a.m.; 1-3:30 p.m.

Vaccination costs are $20 for all ages 19 and up unless in possession of Medicaid or Medicare cards. Children's shots are $7.

Henry County

Health Department

Oct. 10: Henry County Health Department/County Commissioners, Oakwood Commons, Napoleon, 9 a.m.-12 noon

Oct. 14: Hamler Summerfest building, 9-11 a.m.; Holgate municipal building, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Oct. 16: Immanuel Lutheran Church, Deshler, 9-11 a.m.

Oct. 23: Napoleon filling home, 12 noon-3 p.m.

Oct. 30: Old gym, Liberty Center, 2-3 p.m.

Henry County will also have a drive through for those with mobility issues or other illnesses which would make walking difficult. This will be held Oct. 10 at the Oakwood Commons parking lot, Napoleon, from 1-3 p.m.