By DEANNA POGORELC
Staff writer
   Just in time for the new year, the H1N1 flu shot should be available to anyone who wants it.
   State health officials said Thursday the state now has enough H1N1 vaccines for about 25 percent of its population and continues to receive more each week.
   Beginning the week of Dec. 20, the Indiana State Department of Health will work with pharmacies and county health departments to make the H1N1 vaccine available to the general public, an initiative which Whitley County has already undertaken.
   “We’ve had plenty of vaccinations,” April Waugh of the Whitley County Health Department said. “We’ve not run out at any clinics over the past several weeks, and we opened it up to the general public last time.”
   In the meantime, the state will continue to focus on vaccinating school-age children before winter break. “Instead of distributing to counties strictly based on population, local health departments will be ordering the number of doses of the vaccine they need to support clinics before school dismissal,” State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe said.
   The number of Hoosiers seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms decreased again last week for the fifth week in a row, but health officials continue to urge Hoosiers to get vaccinated to avoid another wave of the flu.
   Nearly 3,500 Whitley County residents have received the vaccine, with a majority of that number being people in the high-risk age groups, according to numbers released Nov. 30.
   Despite promising information about the H1N1 vaccine, the demand for the seasonal flu shot still remains unmet in some local areas. “We are completely out of the adult shots, and we will not get any more,” Waugh said.    However, there are still some available for children.
   The next H1N1 clinic is today from 9 a.m. to noon at Churubusco United Methodist Church.

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