The UMV MRC has supported flu clinics every year since our active membership began in 2004. Our response that fall occurred when many people statewide were alarmed by vaccine shortages. MRC members supported phone screenings to reassure area residents, as well as providing inoculations and helping at clinics. During subsequent years, members supported increasing numbers of clinics to vaccinate against seasonal flu.

		No sooner were our first members recruited and trained in 2004 when we had our first deployment: a regional call-out to assist public health efforts across the Upper Merrimack Valley in the face of vaccine shortages. Our MRC volunteers provided services as needed in several local communities.
Phone Screeners in Tewksbury	Syringe Fillers in Westford
Supply Preparers in Chelmsford	Inoculators in Tyngsboro

Special concerns were raised in April 2009 when the Novel H1N1 Virus emerged. The H1N1 pandemic reached historic proportions, and drew on every bit of expertise municipal services could offer.

Dr. Al DeMaria of MDPH helped area residents and MRC members understand the latest information about the Novel H1N1 Virus, in a Westford presentation during flu season in 2009.

An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of the flu that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the human population. Public health officials had long predicted that another pandemic was due, based on knowledge of the way flu viruses mutate, and the severity of their impact.

			At many clinics, there is as great a need for non-medical members as for those with medical skills.     Members this season were needed for roles such as greeters...
			...forms processers, registration staff, and clinic flow -- among many clinic responsibilities.

The H1N1 virus was identified too late in the year to be included among the usual seasonal flu vaccines. The added complexity of providing two vaccines, coupled with delays in delivery, and adherence to CDC guidelines of administering vaccine to target groups, made it all the more difficult to schedule clinics.

Concerned residents often lined up for the clinics long before inoculations began.

One of the reasons many believed the H1N1 pandemic had less of an impact than what was originally feared, was because health departments and the MRC supported surveillance, vastly expanded vaccination efforts, and provided widespread public education campaigns.

Nurses verified procedures and set up their stations for mass prophylaxis.	It takes a lot of members with a wide range of skills to set up an effective clinic and prepare for the influx of local residents!

MRC units across the nation responded and offered surge capacity to public health departments. Our unit supported a record number of clinics this season, spanning a longer duration than ever before.

Pediatrics were a major target group for H1N1 vaccination -- including inoculations by nasal spray.

Many thanks to the members who served clinic after clinic, protecting their own communities against serious diseases!

CLINIC DATA -- To recap MRC volunteer activities, the numbers speak for themselves!

We are grateful to our many members who volunteered hundreds of hours between September 2009 and February 2010 to fill all requests for support, at clinics across the Upper Merrimack Valley. members had also signed up to help at numerous clinics that were postponed when expected deliveries of vaccines were delayed. See the table below for details.