Health care providers will be provided with the single-most effective weapon to fight the spread of H1N1 virus today after months of rampant attacks on the state’s population.The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals expects the initial batch of 26,000 H1N1 vaccines to be delivered directly to health care providers today. The original estimation for distribution was mid-October, but the federal government started pushing out early batches of the vaccine Monday in other states.Health care providers were given the initial doses because of their exposure to the virus and their capacity to spread the disease to the sick.Rene Milligan, director of communications for the DHH, said this initial round of vaccines in Louisiana will target school-aged children.Children will be inoculated first because studies show they are the population that spreads the virus most quickly to at-risk groups, Milligan said.He also said children younger than 10 years old will also require two doses of the vaccine, and the state has opted to help them get the first one early. He said the vaccine is not safe for children under 6 months old.Private pediatric health care providers will likely be the first recipients of the vaccine packages, Milligan said.Christine Sullivan, nurse manager for the Student Health Center, said the clinic registered online Oct. 1 to be a distributor of the vaccine.Sullivan said the Health Center hasn’t heard any news about who will be distributed the vaccines first or when they will arrive on campus.”It would be very helpful for us to know when we would be able to provide the vaccines for our health care providers and our student population,” Sullivan said. “We’re just waiting to be told when we should order and how.”Students still come to the Health Center with flu symptoms, but the numbers have been declining recently, Sullivan said. The trend for panic has also dropped off as students realize the virus is only as potent as the seasonal flu, she said.Milligan said the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine will not likely interfere with the normal flow of seasonal flu shots.The state government recently enacted the “Fight the Flu” campaign aimed at keeping Louisiana residents educated about the seasonal flu. The goal is to keep the weight off health care service providers when the seasonal flu season begins to overlap with the H1N1 pandemic, according to a news release from the governor’s office.The campaign includes $20 million in funds from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and DHH immunization programs and $390,792 from the Recovery Act for statewide vaccinations.Milligan said five separate manufactures are producing the vaccine in various forms including injections with preservatives and nasal sprays. The first vaccines will be Live Attenuated Intranasal Vaccines, a nasal spray form of the vaccine. It will deliver a weakened, but still living, strain of the virus to initiate immunity. The injections, which contain dead strains of the virus, are generally recommended for pregnant women and children under the age of 2, Milligan said.He said some people may develop flu symptoms from the vaccine, but many never develop any symptoms.Tens of thousands more H1N1 vaccines should arrive in Louisiana in multiple forms as early as next week in addition to the initial packages, Milligan said. Anyone who wants an inoculation should be able to get it by the end of January, he said.Milligan said the vaccine itself will not cost anything, but clinics may charge for administration and record keeping. The cost should be close to that of seasonal flu shots  — around $25.The federal government requires each state to keep records of vaccinations. Recipients would have to register with the state before being inoculated. There have been 14 confirmed H1N1-related deaths in Louisiana.—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]