Braintree Health Officials Have Latest Flu Vaccine in Stock

For the upcoming flu season, the Braintree Health Department has ordered a new vaccine that covers four strains of the flu, and officials will make it widely available to Braintree residents.

The quadrivalent vaccine was finalized by several makers this summer as a step up from the three-strain trivalent vaccine that will be most widely available from towns and pharmacies. 


Some 135 million doses of flu vaccine will be produced for the U.S. market in the 2013-2014 flu season, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Of those, approximately 25 million will be quadrivalent vaccines.

Marybeth McGrath, director of the town's health division, said that Braintree was able to secure a stock of the new vaccine because its Board of Health members Dr. Arthur Bregoli Jr., Dr. Philip Nedelman and School Nurse Paula Dowd keep a close eye on flu vaccine developments.

"It's hard to come by," McGrath said. "We want to be able to offer the most benefit that we could."

The first vaccine clinic for all Braintree residents age 18 and older will likely be held in October, Public Health Nurse Mary Mulready said. 

Last year, the health department vaccinated 1,200 residents in just four hours. That clinic was followed by two supplemental clinics in which another 600 residents received vaccination, Mulready said.

Approximately 300 senior citizens will be vaccinated separately at their senior housing locations by October. Braintree students in middle and high school will also be able to receive the vaccine free of charge starting later this fall, if their parents grant permission. 

The health department does not vaccinate younger children because they require two doses and that causes too much confusion, McGrath said. Parents of those children should contact their doctor for vaccine information.

Each year, after the flu season ends, typically by March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks at the strains of the flu that season in different areas of the country, including New England, and develops vaccine guidelines for the following year.

Even if residents contract a strain of the flu different from those included in the quadrivalent vaccine, McGrath said, having the four types in the drug will help blunt most of the flu's impact.

Braintree residents can receive the vaccine at the upcoming clinics free of charge. They are encouraged to present their insurance information so that the health department can be reimbursed. That money goes into a revolving fund that helps pay for all vaccination activity by the town.