Durham provides H1N1 vaccines

DURHAM -- The county's health department is giving walk-in vaccinations for H1N1 flu Wednesday at the National Guard Armory on Stadium Drive, and a walk-in vaccination clinic will open later this week at the Holton Career and Resource Center on Driver Street.

Anyone older than six months may receive a vaccination.

Wednesday vaccinations are from 3 to 6:30 p.m. The Holton clinic will probably open Thursday, but hours are not yet confirmed, said Duke Medical Center physician Cameron Wolfe.

Wolfe said Duke is also operating a pediatric vaccine clinic at its Southpoint Health Center. Vaccinations also are given at Duke's urgent-care offices and at the Public Health office, 414 E. Main St., by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 560-7882.

Flu is usually most widespread in the first week of February, Wolfe said, but whether that pattern will hold for H1N1, "we don't know." But the vaccine takes a couple of weeks to reach maximum effectiveness, so anyone who wants the vaccination should get it now.

Incidence of H1N1 flu is down from a mid-October peak but remains higher than normal for "influenza-type illness" this time of year, said county Public Health Director Gayle Harris. In the 10-county region that includes Durham, Wake and Orange counties, emergency rooms are seeing a higher rate of flu-symptom cases than the state average, Harris said.