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AUSTIN, Texas - Texas prison officials said Tuesday that thousands of high-risk convicts may be vaccinated against the swine flu ahead of the general public as soon as next week.
Michelle Lyons, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman, said more than 45,000 convicts have been targeted to receive the vaccine.
"We have a number of the high-risk groups in prisons -- pregnant women, people with immune deficiencies, with other serious health issues," Lyons said. "In some respects, we're like a nursing home or a college dorm. If the flu were to get started in this environment, it could spread quickly."
The vaccine also will go to more than 40,000 correctional officers and medical personnel who work with the prisoners.
The decision on who gets the vaccine is set by a distribution policy established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyons and officials with the state Department of Health Services said. Under that policy, the initial target groups to receive the shots when the vaccine is first available include pregnant women, health care providers, emergency services personnel and people with medical conditions that put them at highest risk should they get the flu.
"We have been told that we will start receiving doses by around the first of November in lots of 25,000," Lyons said.
She said the prison system has asked for more than 158,000 doses of swine flu vaccine to inoculate all convicts in state prisons and state-contracted private prisons.
If that holds true, prisoners in some parts of Texas could get their shots before members of the general public who might need them.
Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, said the CDC allocates additional doses each week, and state officials then decide who gets them depending on the priority factors.
