Colorado’s first shipment of the H1N1 vaccine — albeit a small one — is scheduled to arrive next week.

The state will receive 53,800 doses of the FluMist nasal spray vaccine out of 2 million being distributed nationally. Most of the vaccine will go to health care workers in the Denver area, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which oversees the distribution statewide. El Paso County is not expected to get any from this shipment.

Additional shipments will occur weekly and include both the FluMist and injectable vaccines. Beginning Oct. 9, Colorado is expected to receive another 64,000 doses out of 4 million nationally. By week three, according to the state health department, quantities will increase sharply.

Colorado is expected to receive 1.6 percent of the national supply, and health authorities anticipate there will enough to vaccinate anyone who who wants it.

Highest priority groups, according to health officials: Pregnant women, people in households with infants under 6 months old, health care workers who interact with patients, children 6 months to 4 years old, and children 5 to 18 with underlying health conditions.

For more information, visit www.colorado.gov/nofluforyou or call 1-877-462-2911.—Call Newsome at 636-0198. Visit the Pikes Peak Health blog at http://www.pikespeakhealth.freedomblogging.com/ and the Gazette’s Health page at www.gazettedev.gazette.com/health.

Joseph Eric Barker Photo by