NEW ORLEANS -- According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, the number of deaths in Louisiana attributed to the H1N1 Virus stands at 30, but the DHH said this week, thousands of doses of the vaccine against the Swine Flu are now pouring into the state.
The DHH recommends all children and young people between 5 and 24 get the vaccine, even with otherwise healthy kids.
"We've seen that the virus has a propensity to effect young children," said Dr. Parham Jaberi, the director of the five parish Northshore Region for the state Department of Health and Hospitals, "We've seen that children without any previous medical problems have suffered some pretty serious complications, and even a few deaths in our region and in our state. So, we feel it's important to get those healthy children vaccinated because you never know who, exactly may develop those complications from the flu."
Jaberi called it rare for a healthy child to develop serious complications from H1N1, but he said it happens. He said getting kids vaccinated will help slow the spread of the virus.
The concern, Jaberi said, is that the H1N1 virus will mutate and become stronger, but he said so far, he sees no evidence of that.
"It's good news so far that it has not become anything more severe," Jaberi said, "but it's really impossible to say whether it will ever or not become more severe."
The DHH said by mid-October, Louisiana had received roughly 80,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine. In the past two weeks, they say, that number has tripled to more than 250,000 doses.
After people between 5 and 24 get the vaccine, Jaberi recommends all adult receive it as well.
