Flu Season: Free Vaccine Arrives at 16 Anne Arundel Schools

There is good news for some Anne Arundel County parents hoping to thwart this year’s strains of flu virus before their children are exposed.

The Anne Arundel County Department of Health has received enough shipment of the FluMist vaccine to administer it free to students at 16 county elementary schools beginning Monday.

A shortage of the popular nasal spray to vaccinate children against the flu forced officials to cancel a planned countywide FluMist program. School and county health leaders last week encouraged parents to schedule flu vaccine injections with their family doctors.

Students at the following schools whose parents have already signed consent forms will be given the vaccine beginning Monday, Oct. 26. Schools will administer vaccinations to students on the dates originally provided when the program was announced.

Vaccines will be administered at these schools:

• Belle Grove Elementary
• Brooklyn Park Elementary
• Eastport Elementary
• Freetown Elementary
• Georgetown East Elementary
• Germantown Elementary
• Glen Burnie Park Elementary
• Glendale Elementary
• Hilltop Elementary
• Maryland City Elementary
• Meade Heights Elementary
• Mills-Parole Elementary
• Park Elementary
• Tyler Heights Elementary
• Van Bokkelen Elementary
• Woodside Elementary

Vaccinations will be available only to students enrolled at these schools. Students whose parents have provided consent but who have received a vaccine since the cancellation of the program was announced last week should notify their school’s nurse as soon as possible.

The Department of Health and the school system announced the launch of the annual program last month, but were forced to cancel it countywide last week due to a delay in the manufacturing and shipment of the vaccine.

FluMist, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is a safe nasal spray vaccine that contains the live but attenuated (weakened) flu virus. Nationally, elementary schools with high flu immunization rates often notice reduced illness not only among the vaccinated students, but among their families as well.

More information is available on the County Department of Health’s website, www.aahealth.org.