Dept. of Health sponsors free flu clinic at Town Hall next week

The Darien Department of Health is planning another H1N1 clinic on Thursday, Feb. 25, in Town Hall room 119 from 3 to 7:30 p.m.

The department has hosted 14 clinics to date, issuing a combined 2,000 flu vaccines, 1,300 of which are for the H1N1 strand of influenza.

"Nobody really knows how H1N1 really is going to manifest itself again, or even if it will," said Darien Health Director David Knauf. "But we're entering peak flu season, now at the end of February and early March.

"It's open-door. You don't even have to be from Darien to get the vaccine, and there's no age restriction," he said. There will be no charge for the shots.

Hospitalizations for the first strand of H1N1 peaked last April, and a second wave hit Connecticut 20 weeks later.

"If that 20-week period is a consistent pattern, we'll be likely to see it again in a couple weeks," Knauf said. And the health department is prepared; the town currently possesses another 500 doses of the vaccine, which Knauf said will most likely satisfy the community's need.

"At no clinic have we ever had 500 people show up, so I'm feeling pretty comfortable with that," he said. The health department administered 220 shots at its last clinic, and 235 at the clinic before, according to Knauf.

The demand for the shots has decreased significantly since the department first began offering the service last fall.

"There's this phenomenon that seems to exist, and that is that if there's a shortage of something, everybody wants it," Knauf said. "When H1N1 first started, there was a lot of talk about the severity, and about people dying, plus there was no vaccine. People got nervous. And when people get nervous, and they were calling to get on the list.

"But it's like there was a tipping point reached right around Thanksgiving here, when the phone just stopped ringing. Before that, we had to have somebody some in just to answer the phone," he said. "But I think people started to see that people weren't dropping dead. People did get sick, feel lousy for a few days, and then got better."

While "Swine Flu" has not turned into a massive emergency around the country as initially feared, Knauf said he is grateful to be able to offer the people of Darien the shot. He is not yet certain whether next Thursday's clinic will be the last in the community this flu season.

"If there's no demand for it, then I don't anticipate having another clinic," he said. "We'll see."