ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTVA-CBS 11 News) It's official, the H1N1 vaccine is here in Alaska. This after months of fears and worries of what the virus could possibly do. CBS 11 News got exclusive access to see the state's vaccine headquarters where the number one priority for health officials was to get the first doses out immediately to the public.

October 5th's first round went right to the Alaska's highest risk group, our two to four year old kids. "The feds surprised us and shipped on Sunday which was good news for us," said Greg Wilkinson, the state's spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services. Good news for Alaska's kids aged 2 to 4, who will be first in line to get the H1N1 nasal spray vaccine. "Its a vaccine that

works real good on that age group and this is an age group that has more of a propensity to end up in the hospital with severe illness from the flu, so we figured if we only have a little bit of this, we can get our best bang for our buck by earmarking for kids two to four," said Wilkinson.

The 4200 doses are now being divided up among Alaska's public health centers based on population in which communities can decide how they will deliver the treatments. What group will be next to get the dose and when it will happen still remains a mystery. "Everyday we wait to hear from them to see if there is more vaccine to order and so we weren't not able to make an order today but we might be able to make an order tomorrow," said Wilkinson.

The


Advertisement

state says it is constantly monitoring the CDC to get the doses for every resident who wants it. "The promise from the feds is there will be enough vaccine delivered to the state of Alaska for every man, woman, and child who wants it," said Wilkinson. "So it won't happen today, it will happen over the next 15 weeks, but ultimately we will have enough vaccine for everybody.

" Now again this first dose is in the nasal spray form for kids aged 2 to 4. Officials say they expect to see injectable versions for all ages in the coming weeks. For more information on the vaccine and what versions are available, please go to our links page.