BY JIM HALL
The Rappahannock Area Health District will offer free flu shots next month at another of its pandemic flu exercises.
The clinic will be held Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 9:30 a.m. at the County Administration Building on State Route 3 in King George.
The session will be open to any resident of the region. Three hundred doses of the vaccine will be available.
This is the first time that health district workers have staged an exercise in King George.
"We're trying to expand our net," said Joseph V. Saitta, emergency services coordinator for the district.
District workers have set up mass vaccinations clinics in Stafford, Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg. The latest were in October when 800 people received free flu shots at a walk-in session in Fredericksburg and at a drive-through program in Spotsylvania.
The King George clinic will be a walk-in exercise in the Board of Supervisors' meeting room.
The health district has sponsored drills to practice inoculating large numbers of people in a short period of time. Officials have said that mass vaccinations may be necessary if a new flu virus emerges for which the public has no immunity.
The 2007-2008 flu season has been mild so far, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For the week ending Dec. 8, Virginia was one of six states reporting "local" flu activity, the CDC said. More than 40 states reported "sporadic" or no activity.
The CDC divides flu activity into five categories, according to severity. Local activity is the middle of the five categories.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433|
Winter is the season for flu, and February is flu season's worst month.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that February has been the busiest flu month 10 times. January was busiest five times, followed by March and December, four times, and November, one time. The CDC has tracked flu activity for 24 seasons, from 1982 to 2006.
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