As swine flu takes hold in Pierce County, the big question is where to get the vaccine to combat it.

The best advice: Keep looking and be patient.

Production delays have limited the amount of H1N1 vaccine on hand now, but much more should be available next month, according to federal officials.

Pierce County is forecast to eventually have 550,000 doses. As of Wednesday, 36,000 doses had arrived, said Eileen Finnigan, a spokeswomen for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Also Wednesday:

 • The number of suspected H1N1 flu victims hospitalized in Pierce County since April increased to 41, up from 38 Tuesday. The number of Pierce County schools reporting absentee rates above 10 percent, in part because of the swine flu, reached 17.

 • A 29-year-old Olympia man, Barry Bender, died last week from a complication related to being stricken by the H1N1 virus, Thurston County officials confirmed.

 • King County offered vaccinations at four clinics, including in Kent and Federal Way. Dozens of people waited up to two hours to get a vaccination at the White Center Public Health Center, KIRO-TV reported.

Pierce County plans its first school clinic Saturday at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup.

In the meantime, finding H1N1 vaccine or even seasonal flu vaccine is difficult.

Dr. Michael Bateman, a Tacoma primary care physician, said Wednesday that he has received no H1N1 vaccine, and he isn’t sure whether his clinic will. He’s also had trouble getting seasonal vaccine.

On Oct. 1, he got 200 of the 1,200 doses he requested of seasonal flu vaccine. In two days it was gone, he said. He called pharmacies to buy more but couldn’t.

Bateman said he’s told his patients at Primary Care Northwest to get the seasonal vaccine where and when they can now and wait for the H1N1.

“I’ve asked them to call pharmacies, supermarkets, employers or the Health Department to see if they have seasonal vaccine,” he said.

Pediatrics Northwest, which has three clinics in Pierce County and one in Federal Way, began receiving H1N1 vaccine Oct. 13 and ended up with 1,000 doses of the nasal mist vaccine for the three Pierce County clinics.

“We are going through it,” administrator Diane Taniguchi said.

The clinics hope to get a shipment of injectable vaccine within the next week, she said.

In Washington, the Department of Health, which coordinates ordering of H1N1 vaccine for the state, had received more than 229,000 doses this week. The state’s weekly allocation is about 316,000 doses, an amount that will increase as more vaccine becomes available.

The state’s allocation is based on its percentage of the nation’s population, said Donn Moyer, a state Health Department spokesman. In turn, the state is allocating swine flu vaccine to counties based on their percentage of the state’s population.

Four manufacturers are making swine flu vaccine: MedImmune LLC; CSL Limited; Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited; and Sanofi Pasteur Inc.

The state doesn’t handle any of the vaccine. Orders come into the Health Department and are forwarded to the CDC, which passes them onto the single vaccine distributor: McKesson Corp.

McKesson ships the vaccine directly to individual sites.

Delays in getting a H1N1 vaccine doesn’t mean it will be wasted, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

“Flu seasons can be very long,” she said. “We’re just in October now, and we expect to see illness from H1N1 for several more months.”

She noted that in the 1957 flu pandemic, there were early cases in September and October, as is occurring now.

“They had another big wave after the first of the year,” Schuchat said. “We may see that in the spring.”

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692

mike.archbold@thenewstribune.com