Nov. 7--WESTFORD -- Judith Klimkiewicz said her students are still waiting for H1N1 vaccines. And she's getting inpatient.
"I don't think they handled this very well. It's very disappointing that we're not getting better information," the superintendent of Nashoba Valley Technical High School said of health officials. "It's something that shouldn't have happened. It's not as if they didn't know about this."
Klimkiewicz's frustrations are echoed at health departments and school districts across Greater Lowell.
In September, Massachusetts health officials put in a request to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 3.7 million H1N1 vaccines to distribute locally, but as of this week, the state has received just over 700,000, according to Jen Manley, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health.
The delay has been blamed on vaccine-production problems, and Manley said she doesn't know when the CDC will finish filling the state's request.
There are rumors among municipal public-health officials that more vaccine would be available at the end of the month or by mid-December, but Manley said in light of numerous delays, state health officials are no longer making projections about when vaccines will be available.
"We're starting to get larger numbers (of vaccines) every day," said Manley, who said state officials are hoping to count 1 million swine-flu vaccines distributed statewide by the end of next week. Lowell, Wilmington
and Ayer have reported receiving a limited number of H1N1 vaccinations.
As of Thursday, there have been 1,555 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu reported in the state since April. But state health officials are reminding the public that those numbers are just a sampling. Health experts are no longer recommending testing to confirm patients are suffering from the swine flu. Health experts say the tests are a waste of resources, and they don't want doctors to hold off on necessary anti-viral treatment while waiting for test results.
"We're definitely seeing widespread cases of H1N1 flu and at this point we think there are cases in every community," said Manley.
Hand-sanitizer stations and posters with health guidelines are now commonplace in area schools as officials work to prevent the further spread of swine flu.
Klimkiewicz said school officials noticed a spike of about 50 students out of school one day last week with flu-like symptoms, but by Monday, the absence rate had returned to normal at the regional technical school serving Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Westford.
She said the school installed antibacterial soap stations throughout the school two years ago and janitors continue to disinfect the building regularly to stop the spread of swine flu.
"We've had limited cases, which is good, but I don't think we're going to stay above it much longer," said Klimkiewicz.
Tyngsboro School Superintendent Darrell Lockwood said he also noticed a large number of students absent from one of their schools for the past two weeks but reports the rate of absences are now back to normal. Lockwood said school officials are not sure if all the absences can be attributed to H1N1 because there were reports of some students suffering from strep throat and seasonal flu.
In Wilmington, one school noticed a 15 percent rate of absences at the beginning of the week with a number of kids sick with flu-like symptoms, according to Doreen Crowe, nurse leader for the school system.
"It seems to have slowed down," said Crowe.
Wilmington officials have planned a clinic to distribute the limited number of H1N1 vaccinations they have received. Those vaccinations are going to students ages 5 to 9 because children under 10 need a second dose of the vaccination, according to Crowe.
"We only have a limited supply, so we're starting to target that age group," said Crowe.
Greater Lowell Technical High School in Tyngsboro is still waiting to receive the 2,000 H1N1 vaccinations requested for the school, according to Valerie Murphy, who oversees the nursing staff there.
The regional school has had three confirmed cases of H1N1 flu since the beginning of the school year with the most recent confirmed case reported Thursday, according to Murphy.
School administrators in Tewksbury have been working closely with the Board of Health to monitor attendance, while officials wait for the vaccines they were promised to arrive, said Marcia Osterman, head nurse for the town's public schools.
"At this point, we can't schedule clinics because the vaccine hasn't been delivered yet," said Osterman.
On Tuesday, Lowell health officials will begin to distribute the limited number of vaccines they have received to pregnant women.
Ayer recently received about 100 doses of H1N1 vaccine and school nurses distributed the vaccines to teachers and staff on a first-come, first-served basis, said Superintendent George Frost.
"We're doing everything we can possible do to deal with a virus that nobody sees," said Frost. "We're doing everything we can to be proactive. We're trying to manage this before it becomes a crisis."
Ayer officials monitor student absences and thought they might have a local outbreak of H1N1 flu last week when the normal absence rate at the school doubled to 10 percent, but they soon attributed the absences to strep throat, according to Frost.
Many school officials who spoke to The Sun said they expect to keep their doors open.
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