Superintendent Dr. David Eubanks told the Union County Board of School Trustees Monday that the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has offered to partner with the district for a school-based vaccination program as soon as a vaccine is available. Eubanks said that while vaccination will be voluntary, the district will send a letter to parents urging them to allow their children to be vaccinated.
“We’re a public school system and our job is to provide children with an education in a safe environment,” he said. “Our concern is that without the vaccinations the H1N1 flu will prevent us from doing our job by making students sick and keeping them out of school. We want our children to be safe, we want them to be healthy and we want them to be in school getting the education they need.”
Eubanks said DHEC told him that the vaccine will be available sometime in late October or early November. He added that there are three ways to help avoid getting the flu and/or spreading it:
• Get vaccinated
• Wash your hands
• If you get sick, stay at home.
Clinical trials of the vaccine have just begun and results are not expected until September. Health officials believe most people will need two shots — spaced three weeks apart — with immunity only developing up to two weeks after the last shot.
Swine flu was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on June 11, the first such declaration since the Hong Kong flu of 1968. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has predicted that 20 to 40 percent of Americans will suffer swine flu symptoms this fall, half of them becoming sick enough to have to go the doctor. The panel also estimated that between 30,000 and 90,000 people will die from swine flu in contrast to the seasonal flu which kills an estimated 36,000 every year. Children and young adults, pregnant women and health care workers are considered the most at-risk.
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