Maine prison inmates who qualify getting flu inoculations

Some of Maine’s oldest and sickest residents may be waiting in long lines in their struggle to get flu shots this year, but at the Maine State Prison, inmates who qualify began getting their inoculations on Monday.

Gov. John Baldacci urged worried residents on Wednesday to remain calm and said more vaccine would be arriving from the Centers for Disease Control during the month of November.

In the meantime, corrections officials have been identifying and vaccinating high-risk inmates.

“We’ve identified 620 inmates who meet the criteria set forth by the Centers for Disease Control,” Denise Lord, associate commissioner of the Department of Corrections, said.

Those inmates who are eligible for flu shots must be either over the age of 65 or suffer from an illness that could be complicated by the onset of the flu.

Lord said the department ordered its flu shot supply last summer through a national pharmacy the department ordinarily uses. She said the department has enough vaccine to inoculate the qualifying prisoners as well as some extra to be held in reserve.

“The reserve will be used for inmates who meet the CDC criteria and who come into the system during the flu season,” Lord explained.

Lord noted the state’s legal obligation to provide appropriate health care to prison inmates and said the department normally uses the “community standard” when making decisions on issues such as treatment and vaccinations.

During a press conference Wednesday at his office in Augusta, Baldacci said the additional doses promised the state by the CDC would bring the total of state-distributed vaccine to about 95,000 doses, still far short from its order of 150,000 doses.

The additional vaccine anticipated in November will be “distributed to some high-risk patients in long-term care facilities, rural health centers and geographical areas of Maine that have almost no vaccine at this time,” the governor said.