The following message was sent to the Tufts Community Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009.
Dear Members of the Tufts Community:
There continues to be substantial media attention to vaccination against H1N1 influenza. At this point, we have yet to receive any of the H1N1 vaccine the university has requested. It is not yet clear when our first deliveries will arrive, or how large they will be. We are, however, making plans for H1N1 vaccination within the Tufts community once we receive our supplies.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the priority groups for H1N1 vaccination include pregnant women; household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age; healthcare and emergency medical services personnel; all people from 6 months through 24 years of age; and persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with a higher risk of medical complications from influenza.
The university has a particular responsibility to facilitate vaccination for our own healthcare workers and for those students on the Medford/Somerville campus for whom the University Health Service serves as primary care provider. We are already working to identify those Health Service patients whose medical conditions mean they should be vaccinated as early as possible.
We hope we will also be able to facilitate H1N1 vaccination for other members of the community who are in the priority groups. It is likely that our first deliveries of the vaccine will be limited, however. Therefore, we encourage members of the faculty and staff and graduate and professional students on the Boston and Grafton campuses who may be at high risk for medical complications to proactively consult their own primary care providers regarding their best options for H1N1 vaccination.
The evidence to date indicates that pregnant women are at especially high risk for serious complications from H1N1 infection, and pregnant women should be in touch with their own health care providers about vaccination. The university hopes to be able to provide vaccination against H1N1 for pregnant members of the university community whose OB/GYN care providers are not able to make other arrangements. We ask pregnant members of the university community who are interested in H1N1 vaccination through Tufts to contact Cecile Fagan at the Health Service at cecile.fagan@tufts.edu, providing your name, university affiliation, and contact information. This personal health information will be treated with complete confidentiality.
We will keep the community informed as to the status of vaccination efforts. More information on the flu and our preparedness efforts is available at http://emergency.tufts.edu/flu. We appreciate your patience and collaboration as we work together to keep Tufts healthy.
Sincerely,
John King, Senior Director of Public and Environmental Safety and Chair,
University-Wide Task Force on Pandemic Planning
Margaret Higham, M.D., Medical Director, Tufts University Health Service
Professor Kanchan Ganda, M.D., Department of Public Health and Community
Service, School of Dental Medicine
Joseph P. McManus, Executive Associate Dean, Cummings School of
Veterinary Medicine
Kathe Cronin, Vice President for Human Resources
