At a glance

• WHAT: Patterson Community Flu Shot Clinic

• WHEN: 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 3

• WHERE: Northmead Elementary School’s TLC room

• COST: $10 for children and $20 for adults, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

• SCHOOLS: Free flu vaccinations will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at local elementary schools: Apricot Valley, Oct. 27; Las Palmas, Oct. 29; Northmead, Nov. 3; Grayson Charter, Nov. 5.

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After a long-anticipated approval of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine last week, local health agencies, doctors and schools have united in a planned effort to provide the community with mass vaccinations when the first shipments begin to arrive in early October.

The Stanislaus County Health Services Agency is expected to distribute limited doses of the vaccination to local health clinics, such as the Del Puerto and Golden Valley health centers, to be available in a shot or a nasal mist for a minimal cost.

The Del Puerto Health Center has already ordered about 1,000 doses of the vaccine from the county, according to the center’s medical director, Dr. Eric Ramos.

Until vaccinations arrive, however, Ramos said he expects he and other local doctors will continue to treat patients with unconfirmed cases of swine flu the same as he would the seasonal flu, removing the need for doctors to send a patients’ lab culture to be tested.

This new approach to treatment not only saves the patient from paying for an expensive lab culture sample, but also seems to work more effectively in preventing the flu symptoms from becoming worse, he said.

“Most people that are infected with the H1N1 virus have many of the same symptoms as the seasonal flu provides,” Ramos said. “Because most people tend to feel bad for a few days with no lingering symptoms, we’ve really changed our approach to treatment — I feel for the better.

“Before, when we would treat right away, it would give the virus time to mutate and become immune to the drugs we’ve been prescribing. That is definitely the last thing we want to happen in this situation.”

The Centers for Disease Control has maintained that swine flu hasn’t proven to be any more dangerous than seasonal flu but tends to hit younger people harder. Preliminary studies have begun to suggest people older than 50 may have already been exposed to strains of the virus earlier in life and therefore are at less of a risk for infection, Ramos said.

When the vaccine is received, the county health department said priority of vaccinations will likely be based on the CDC guidelines — health care workers, pregnant women, infants and school-age children, and people with chronic health conditions first. The CDC has also recommended getting a double vaccination this year — one traditional flu shot in addition to one swine flu shot, for preventative measures.

But as important as getting vaccinated is, reinforcing preventative measures against the virus is equally important, said Nancy Fisher, the county’s director of public health nursing.

“We can’t underrate taking preventative measures like washing hands and being careful where you’re sneezing,” Fisher said. “H1N1 is still very much in the community right now, and people really need to take care of themselves.”

Fisher said there have been 60 confirmed swine flu cases and six deaths since the outbreak began in the spring. There have been four confirmed cases in the Patterson Joint Unified School District, but each fully recovered, according to Dave Hodge, the districts’ director of special education and the manager of its nursing staff.

But Fisher said with doctors changing how they deal with swine flu, it has become more difficult to keep accurate totals of confirmed cases.

In addition to referring students with flu-like symptoms to be seen immediately by a doctor, every elementary school in the Patterson district will offer free seasonal flu shots with parent approval on select dates in late October and early November, Hodge said.

The district will also partner with the county to host a public flu shot clinic at Northmead Elementary on Nov. 3.

“With confirmed or unconfirmed cases, we’re taking extra precautions to make sure the schools are clean and safe,” Hodge said. “The school district doesn’t deal in probabilities.”

• Contact Kendall Wright at 892-6187 or kendall@pattersonirrigator.com.