County declares H1N1 emergency

Whitman County commissioners declared a swine flu state of emergency Monday morning. Fran Martin, county health department director, said the emergency declaration allows people other than doctors and nurse practitioners to administer vaccines for the H1N1 swine flu virus.

“We’re finding that we’re working our heads and tails off in trying to administer injections, and we’re losing ground on our regular work,” said Martin.

Martin said local EMS personnel and pharmacy and veterinary students at WSU will likely be trained to administer the vaccine.

She added county officials are organizing immunization clinics through fire districts in each community.

Whitman joins Benton and Franklin counties as the only counties in the state to declare an emergency because of the pandemic.

Immediate emphasis will be on vaccinating WSU students before they leave for Thanksgiving vacation. Such an effort, Martin said, will help stave off an outbreak of the disease similar to the one that struck at the start of fall semester when students brought in the swine flu from home and it spread to other students.

Martin said the health department has been immunizing about 300 people a week at its Pullman office.

She anticipated receiving another 700 doses of the vaccine later this week.