By Bill Raack, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis County Health Department has received its first shipment of the highly-anticipated H1N1 flu vaccine.
But spokesman John Shelton says there are only about 5,000 doses of the vaccine in nasal mist form.
"The vaccine is being packaged for distribution to priority groups that will receive these first doses. That includes health care providers and emergency responders like ambulance drivers and paramedics. But anyone in the county who does want the H1N1 vaccine will eventually get it," Shelton said.
Shelton says the idea is to keep the health care providers healthy so they can deal with everyone else.
Shelton expects a much larger shipment of the swine flu vaccine to arrive later this month.
The virus has been blamed for hundreds of deaths since it was first identified in April.