A third of Penn's campus is now vaccinated against H1N1

After seven H1N1 vaccine clinics across the University, the Student Health Service has immunized 8,313 students, according to SHS Public Health Nurse Sharon McMullen.

Nearly 34 percent of Penn students have received the vaccine, almost double the state average.

According to the American College Health Association, 17.1 percent of college students in the state were vaccinated.

A possible reason for the high vaccination rate at Penn is that Philadelphia received vaccines directly from the federal government, while the state handled distribution for other counties, said Neil Fishman, the director of the Department of Healthcare Epidemiology for the University of Pennsylvania Healthcare System.

He said the city’s prioritization of colleges, SHS director Evelyn Wiener’s efforts to ensure adequte vaccines for students and an efficient distribution system contributed to Penn’s successful administration of the vaccine.

“The distribution of the vaccine in Philadelphia and at Penn could serve as a model for other areas,” said Fishman, who handled distribution in the Penn Healthcare System but not within the University campus.

He said Philadelphia was able to receive vaccines directly from the federal government because the city has a well-established child-vaccination network in place.

Other counties in Pennsylvania were allocated vaccines from the state and then made decisions on where to distribute the vaccine, mainly to places such as elementary schools, hospitals or universities.

“I was really upset with the inequitable distribution of the vaccine from county to county,” Fishman said. “I think the process would have run more smoothly if there were uniform guidelines for states and counties to follow.”

According to Wiener, almost all the H1N1 vaccines given last fall were administered through the mass special clinics that were offered for free to all Penn students.

The most vaccinations were given at a clinic at the ARCH building on Nov. 13, with 3,019 distributed. Clinics on Nov. 20 and Dec. 4 distributed about 1,500 vaccines each.

Wiener reported that SHS is seeing low levels of influenza-like illness in students this semester. H1N1 cases on campus peaked in October, with more than 100 new cases reported each week.

However, SHS is still encouraging students to be vaccinated through individual appointments.

“Most public health authorities have advised that a third wave of illness is possible,” Wiener wrote in an e-mail.

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