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| More swine flu vaccine arrives, shot availability limited Children, high-risk groups and Barentsburg residents to get doses More vaccinations for H1N1 flu arrived Longyearbyen this week, but shots will be limited to those in at-risk groups, officials said. "We will vaccinate children under the age of 6 this Saturday" and school-age children next week, wrote Aksel Bilicz, a supervising nurse at Longyearbyen Hospital, in an e-mail. "Barentsburg will get 150 doses (they have not received any yet), so we will not have any doses left for the general population as I can see until (the) next delivery." Youths under 6 will be vaccinated at Longyearbyen School on Nov. 21. Those ages 6 months to 2 years can receive shots from 10-11 a.m., 2 to 4 years from 11 a.m. to noon and 4 to 6 years from noon to 1 p.m. Each vaccine costs 50 kroner. The hospital will also administer shots to about 35 Longyearbyen residents with high-risk health conditions such as chronic respiratory or heart disease, diabetes and severe obesity, he wrote. Officials were concerned the shipment of vaccine for the ailment, also known as swine flu, would be delayed due to high demand nationally and globally. National health officials estimate 680,000 people have been infected and 21 have died from the disease in Norway. About 550 people in Longyearbyen have already received vaccinations from an initial shipment in late October, which is also when the first two confirmed cases of the flu were confirmed in Svalbard. The Svalbard governor's office has since confirmed two more cases, but local health officials said dozens of additional people have reported or been diagnosed with similar symptoms without officially being classified as infected. More information about the virus and preventative measures is available in Norwegian and English at www.pandemi.no.
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