Lincoln County will be one of nine centralized locations for anadditional supply of flu vaccine next week, according to healthofficials.

Cathy Bridge, infection control practitioner at King’s DaughtersMedical Center, said she was not sure why Lincoln County was chosenas one of the nine locations, but it was not an indication of anepidemic here.

“Our hospitalization has been up just a little with patientsexhibiting flu-like symptoms, but it’s nowhere near an epidemic,”she said. “We are seeing a lot of people with flu-like symptoms,but we have only had a few confirmed with the flu by labtests.”

Masks are being provided to emergency room patients who showflu-like symptoms to help control the spread of the virus, Bridgesaid.

“People with the flu need to stay at home to help prevent thespread,” she said.

The nation’s two producers of flu shots reported last week thatthey had shipped their entire supply of about 80 million doses offlu vaccine. However, Aventis had set aside 250,000 doses at theCDC’s request last week when it became clear that shortages mightdevelop.

So far, health officials have administered about 140,000 fluvaccines in Mississippi, according to Dr. Mary Currier, anepidemiologist with the state Department of Health.

Mississippi was added Thursday to the list of 24 states withwidespread flu activity by the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.

MDH’s Brookhaven Clinic can’t keep the flu vaccine in stock.They received an order of doses last week, but they were gone byearly Tuesday. A second shipment of vaccine became available Fridaymorning, but officials didn’t expect it to last the day.

“We just received 50 doses, but it’ll be gone today,” saidCoordinating Nurse Becky Calcote. “There were people waiting inline for it this morning.”

Calcote urged residents to continue calling the healthdepartment for availability, because supplies will probablycontinue to trickle in.

“We’ve been real busy,” she said. “We’re doing the best we canwith what we can get.”

The hospital still has a small supply of the vaccine, Bridgesaid, but its use is limited.

“We are one of the few places locally who still have a verysmall amount of vaccine, and we are saving that for our patients,”she said. “We’re very active in the community and visit schools,nursing homes and other places on request to administer thevaccine. We did that earlier. Unfortunately, those who missed usthen will have to try to find it now.”

Bridge said she couldn’t provide a hard number on the amount ofcases in the hospital because it is not something that is normallyreportable to the state health department. However, in the lastweek, the health department has requested they begin to report flucases.

“We still won’t have a good handle on the number of flu casesbecause some people will visit physicians’ offices or diagnosethemselves, but we’ll be able to provide the number of caseshospitalized here,” she said.

The outbreak has taken an enormous toll nationwide: At least 20children have died. Schools have shut down. Emergency rooms havebeen filled with sick children. And doctors’ offices have beenforced to turn away droves of people seeking flu shots.

”We definitely encourage those who are high risk to get the fluvaccine before anyone else,” Currier said. ”Children this yearhave been seriously impacted by the flu.”

Some experts predict this year’s death toll easily could surpassthe annual average of 36,000 flu deaths. Health officials areunsure why the outbreak has hit so early, why it has caused so manyproblems in the West, and why it seems to be so lethal inchildren.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, said the center isrecommending that doctors give high-risk groups top priority forflu shots. That means the elderly, children under 2, those withchronic medical conditions, and women in the second and thirdtrimester of pregnancy.

”The flu season is far from over, we are going to have toprioritize,” Gerberding said.

Health officials said healthy individuals between ages five and49 can use FluMist as an alternative to the vaccine.