BREAKING : First doses of H1N1 flu vaccine going out in USA

BREAKING : First doses of H1N1 flu vaccine going out in USA

New York : A national campaign to inoculate tens of millions of Americans against H1N1 influenza begins Monday, with health care workers in Tennessee and Indiana targeted as the first recipients, federal health authorities said.

"We're not sure how many [doses] are coming; we're waiting for the vaccine to arrive," said Jennilyn Utkov, a spokeswoman for LeBonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, where three children have died from H1N1, sometimes referred to as swine flu.

The vaccine used will be MedImmune's FluMist, a live virus delivered via a nasal spray.Medimmune Nasal Spray Will Be The First U.S. H1N1 vaccines - CDC. It is the same company who patented the H1N1 Swine Flu virus back in 2008

The 3.4 million doses of vaccine that have been shipped are the first of 195 million doses the U.S. government has purchased from five vaccine manufacturers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Jay Butler said last month. Butler, who heads the agency's 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Task Force, promised there will be enough for anyone who wants it.

Health officials also have recommended people reduce their chance of getting sick by frequent handwashing, sneezing into a tissue or sleeve rather than into one's hand, and staying home when sick.

Those who are at the highest risk of getting seriously ill -- pregnant women, children, young adults and people with chronic lung disease, heart disease or diabetes -- should be among the first to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus, health officials have said.

Health care workers may not necessarily be foremost among them. In the past, about 40 percent of health care workers have opted to be vaccinated against the flu, according to the CDC.