Photo by Eric Keith / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Nancy Taylor from the Buchannan County Health Department delivers a batch of H1N1 vaccine Tuesday afternoon.

The City of St. Joseph Health Department has announced it will make its first shipment of 2009 H1N1 vaccine available to the public this week.

The first shipment will consist of 400 doses of the intranasal LAIV (live attenuated influenza vaccine) spray. The intranasal spray will be targeted to healthy 2- to 4-year-olds and will be administered by participating pediatric providers.

“The Health Department is anticipating early shipments from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be small,” Debra Bradley, the city’s health director, said in a release. “These shipments will be targeted to those most at risk for serious illness, hospitalization and even death, including pregnant women and children.”

However, pregnant women, healthy children 6 months to 2 years old and people with underlying medical conditions are not eligible for the LAIV intranasal spray and will need to wait for the injectable vaccine to become available.

Those who are most at risk and who should get the injectable vaccine from these early shipments include children under age 18 with underlying medical conditions, young children between 6 months and 4 years old, pregnant women and caregivers of infants under 6 months old.

The Health Department said a listing would be available by today of local providers who will administer the H1N1 vaccine. For more information, go online to www.stjoemo.info/flu or call 271-5325.

Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.