SACRAMENTO (Nov. 10, 2009) — California Prison Health Care Services (CPHCS) has received a shipment of H1N1 vaccines today, making it among the last of the state public agencies to receive their allotment. Following the strict protocol directed by the national Centers for Disease Control, it is expected that with this shipment fewer
than 5800 frontline staff who come into physical contact with California’s patient-inmates for health care and custody purposes and fewer than 170 pregnant inmates
will be vaccinated from this shipment.
Dr. Janet Mohle-Boetani, CPHS Chief Medical Officer of the Public Health Unit says, “These doses are long overdue. We are among the last of California’s public agencies to get the vaccine. Our nurses and custody officers enter our prisons every day. They come in close contact with the prisoners and then return to their families and their surrounding communities. Due to overcrowding, our prisons could become breeding grounds for an H1N1 outbreak. Vaccinating our nurses and custody
officers protects their neighbors and their children’s classmates almost as much as it protects them.”
As to the approx. 170 pregnant patient-inmates who will receive the vaccine, Dr. Mohle-Boetani says, “we are strictly following the guidelines set by the national Centers for Disease Control. The decisions on who gets the vaccines and when, is strictly set by the CDC and I insist that they be followed to the letter in our institutions.”