The new H1N1 flu virus, or swine flu, has jump started the flu season in the United States with an unprecedented number of people in South Carolina reporting flu-like symptoms to their physicians or having full-blown swine flu.

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley and Wallace Thomson Hospital director of infection control and prevention and employee health/staff development Emily Cannon each said the widespread flu activity happening right now across the state and in Union County is something unseen until later in the year.

“Unfortunately, since April, we’ve seen a steady increase in cases,” Beasley said.

So with H1N1 seemingly running rampant throughout the state and the country, the best way to be protected against it is to get vaccinated.

But supplies of the vaccine for the new influenza virus still are drastically limited.

According to the Associated Press, there were not quite 42 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine available at the end of last week which was a few million less than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted to be available only a week before.

“The demand still outstrips the supply,” Beasley said.

State DHEC officials are expecting to receive another 100,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine this week but to date just over 604,000 doses have been allocated to the state.

“That seems like a lot; however, we were expecting to have two million doses by the end of the year,” Beasley said. “We’re running far short of that.”

And, he added, it doesn’t look like that will change unless something drastic happens in the production and distribution systems in place for getting the vaccine out.

The vaccine that has come into South Carolina has been distributed by DHEC to about 800 registered locations around the state, including local DHEC offices and other medical or public and private health providers. The Union County branch of DHEC just held a vaccine clinic for at-risk people on Saturday.

And while Wallace Thomson is not offering vaccine to the general public, it is taking steps to make sure its employees and patients have access.

“We are leaving that to the public health department,” Cannon said. “We are vaccinating our employees and can provide vaccines to in-patients if their physician orders it for them. We also are working with the CHA physician practices to have vaccine to provide to at-risk patients.”

Despite the shortage, the people most at risk from the new flu bug are getting the vaccine.

“We’re trying to be very good stewards of maintaining the vaccine,” Beasley said. “What our main objective has been — we have done our very best to focus on those priority groups.”

The at-risk populations DHEC and health officials are most concerned about when it comes to H1N1 are children and young people. The CDC says no children and very few adults younger than 60 years old have existing antibodies to the 2009 H1N1 flu yet nearly one-third of adults older than 60 could have existing immunity because of their exposure to a similar virus several years ago.

So anyone under 60 years old, pregnant or having previous or existing medical conditions including diabetes, heart disease, asthma and kidney disease are considered the most at risk when it comes to H1N1. The age groups are reversed when it comes to seasonal flu with senior citizens becoming the higher risk group.

Beasley said DHEC — like the CDC — is placing an emphasis on school children.

As of last Friday, the AP reported federal estimates showed H1N1 has killed nearly 4,000 people in the United States since its emergence here in April — 540 of which have been children.

“It’s been extremely dangerous to young children,” Beasley said. “They suffer the most severe cases.”

In it’s effort to slow the spread of the new flu virus, DHEC has been trying to vaccinate as many children as possible with vaccine clinics at schools. With 20-30 children in one classroom every day, H1N1 has an easy breeding ground.

Beasley said by getting their children vaccinated, parents aren’t only protecting them but also themselves and the rest of their family and friends.

Parents across the nation seem to be heeding the CDC’s message to get children vaccinated as an AP poll recently showed nearly one in six parents has gotten at least some of their children vaccinated against the swine flu since inoculations began in October.

Another 14 percent of parents across the nation sought vaccine, but were unable to find any.

Beasley hopes the vaccine will become more readily available. Until then he asks that people remain patient.

“We wish we had more coming into South Carolina,” he said. “If there’s any one thing we want to stress is that vaccination still is the best protection against this illness. Contact your private provider to ask if they have it and if it’s right for you.”

But DHEC is determined to get the vaccine to people when it can especially when H1N1 is just as resilient as any other flu virus.

“Anyway you look at it, the flu is still the flu,” Beasley said. “The virus does its best to not only infect but also survive. Please be patient. We’ll do everything we can to get the vaccine to you when more is available.”