H1N1 flu vaccines are starting to trickle into East Texas, but trickle is still the operative word.

Michelle Skyrme, Gregg County Health Department official, reports they have now received 400 doses of the H1N1 vaccine available to the public, but only to those meeting certain criteria.

“Those eligible to receive the vaccine are children two to five years of age, children five to 18 who have underlying health problems — and those problems must be documented from a physician — pregnant women and health care workers who serve vaccine-eligible patients,” said Skyrme. “We started giving the vaccine on Thursday and will continue to do so until the 400 doses are gone.”

Gregg County Health Department officials do not know when they will receive another supply of the vaccine.

“It could just arrive and in whatever quantity the state determines we should get,” said Skyrme.

Skyrme explained that physicians placed orders last August and September based on their license as to the number of doses they were requesting.

“Originally 3.7 million doses of the H1N1 were targeted for Texas by Oct. 15, but this is not going to happen. It will be probably be in January before this quota is met,” she said.

Skyrme said she has heard the Center for Disease Control could have enough of the vaccine by the middle of December to offer it to the general public.

Anyone looking for the H1N1 vaccine should also check with their private physicians, but those providers are still being told to use the vaccine for the above listed criteria in patients, said Skyrme.

Pharmacies at Brookshire’s and Walmart, along with CVS and Walgreens, are all out of the seasonal flu vaccine and none expect to get the H1N1 vaccine.

Good Shepherd Family Health Clinic in Kilgore said it has both the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines, but due to the limited number of doses doctors will only give them to established patients, according to Tristan, a clinic employee.

Julyann Sanders, school nurse at Maude Laird Middle School, said she is down to her last six doses of the seasonal flu vaccine and there is still no word on when the H1N1 vaccine will arrive.

Kilgore ISD officials ordered enough H1N1 vaccine to handle its entire school population, according to Jody Clements, superintendent.

Kerry Williams, spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said a total of 1.7 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine have been allotted to Texas by the CDC as of Friday.

Williams said for Texas this includes both the mist and injection type vaccines.

CDC allocates vaccine to the various state health departments each week, but how each provider or health care agency, even schools, are targeted is still unclear. No one knows an exact timeline at this point for the general population to get the vaccine, said Williams.

“It is not just Texas, it is all over the country. No state knows how many doses they are being provided and in what form,” said Williams. “High-risk groups are still the priority.”

Texas expects to receive 15 million doses of the vaccine by the end of January.