December 7, 2009

H1N1 flu vaccine now available to employees in tier 2 of plan

With H1N1 influenza vaccine now more plentiful, Lloyd B. Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, announced last week that Johns Hopkins has taken another step along the priority tiers described in its vaccination priority plan.

Vaccine against H1N1 flu is now available to anyone in tier 2 of the plan, specifically anyone employed by Johns Hopkins as a health-care provider, even in a general-risk setting, and anyone age 24 and younger who is either a full-time employee of the university or a part-time employee for whom the university is the primary employer.

Also, Minor said that H1N1 vaccine is still being administered to faculty and staff ages 25 to 64 who meet other criteria in the vaccination priority plan. This includes full-time and eligible part-time employees who are pregnant, who are caregivers for children younger than 6 months or who have asthma, diabetes, an abnormal or suppressed immune system, chronic cardiovascular disease (not high blood pressure) or a neurologic disease (such as a seizure disorder or neuromuscular problems).

Locations and times for receiving the vaccine are posted online at www                  .hopkinsmedicine.org/hse/occupational_health/flu_campaign.html.

An announcement will be made when Johns Hopkins goes to tier 3, Minor said. At that point, vaccination will be open to all full-time and eligible part-time employees of any age, even those who meet none of the conditions listed above.

The Johns Hopkins vaccination plan is posted online at http://tinyurl.com/        jhuvaxplan and a summary of the tiers at http://tinyurl.com/jhuvaxtiers. (Both documents are accessible only from within the Johns Hopkins network.) Other flu information is available at http://flu.jhu.edu.