ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- A state-wide swine flu vaccine shortage is leaving some school districts in the St. Louis region with no way to protect their students.
Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services says the state only has 28-percent of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine it needs. Missouri has been shipped 220,000 doses, when it asked for 750,000. The need for much more vaccine is very real. The first two weeks of the flu season typically bring no more than 30 people under the weather, but HSS spokesman Kit Wagar says in the first two weeks of this season, around 5,000 people are already out with the flu.
Wagar says most of the available medicine has gone to the state's population centers: Kansas City and St. Louis. But it is in such short supply that, locally, the Kirkwood and Wentzville school districts are cancelling upcoming H1N1 vaccination clinics.
Kirkwood District officials had planned clinics for Thursday through Saturday and had planned to vaccinate students in their home schools. There's no word on when they may be rescheduled.
The Wentzville district had planned to provide vaccinations Saturday and then again November 7th, December 5th and December 12th.
Wentzville District spokesman Matt Deichmann says that once it's received enough vaccinations for all the students who want it, it will reschedule clinic dates and times. Two thousand of that district's 12,000 students have signed up.
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