There’s no vaccine against the H1N1 flu strain yet, but when there is one — and health officials think that will be soon — there is already a list of people who will go to the head of the line to get the shot.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has come up with recommendation for who should get the swine flu vaccine.

The agency’s recommendations s focus on five key populations and are designed to help reduce the impact and spread of swine flu. The groups include:
• pregnant women,
• people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age,
• health care and emergency services personnel,
• persons between the ages of 6 months through 24 years of age, and
• people from ages 25 through 64 years who are at higher risk for novel H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.

Federal officials estimate that 159 million people nationwide are in that group.

An advocacy group for people with autism will hold an event August 6 to plan for its October walkathon.
The greater Hudson Valley Walk Now For Autism Speaks event will be held at 6:30 p.m. August 6 at Dave & Buster’s in the Palisades Mall. Sign up information will be available. For more information about the 2009 Greater Hudson Valley Walk Now for Autism Speaks, to be held on October 17 at the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, go to  www.walknowforautism.org/greaterhudsonvalley .
Last year’s Greater Hudson Valley Walk Now for Autism Speaks event attracted over 3,000 walkers and raised more than $100,000 for autism research.

An air-quality alert was issued today for Putnam and four other counties in the Lower Hudson Valley, including Orange, Ulster, Dutchess and Sullivan.

New York environmental officials say the combination of summer heat and exhaust gases is boosting ozone to unhealthy levels in those places.

The alert is in effect through 11 p.m. today, according to the  New York state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Ozone levels in Westchester and Rockland, which are part of the New York City metro, are moderate, according to the state.
People with respiratory disease and those who do vigorous work or exercise outdoors, especially children, should limit activity when ozone levels are highest, generally in the afternoon and early evening.

Students in Port Chester will soon be able to get tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases at a in-school health clinic run by Open Door Medical Centers, according to a Journal News story by reporter Theresa Juva.

All but one member of the school board voted to allow the tests to meet the growing need of the student population.

In 2008, the director of clinical services for Open Door said 19 of the 525 girls at Port Chester High School were either pregnant or parenting.

Like most people, I read with a mix of disbelief and revulsion about  Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a Brooklyn man, some say rabbi, who was caught up in last week’s New York/New Jersey corruption probe.

Unlike most of 44 people, including rabbis and mayors, charged by federal agents in the investigation, Rosenbaum was not accused of political corruption.

His alleged crime was a lot more strange: he was charged with selling body parts. Specifically kidneys. According to court documents, he is charged with paying people $10,000 for a healthy kidney, then re-selling the organ for as much as $160,000.

The story made me think of all the organ donation stories I’ve written over the years – stories of people who show amazing altruism, often under heart-breaking circumstances, when they agree to donate organs.

It also made me think of LifeSharers. I often get e-mails from this organization, but I’ve never written about them.

Rosenbaum’s arrest is a perfect argument for why such a group can really work to lessen the severe and often deadly shortage of organs.

Here’s how if works: LifeSharers members promise to donate upon their death, and they give fellow members first access to their organs.

LifeSharers member have access to organs that otherwise may not be available or might require a lon waiting list.  As the LifeSharers network grows, more and more organs may become available to member.

Membership is free. More than 12,500 people have already signed up. More than 100,000 people are already on other waiting lists for donor organs, most of them through the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS.

Check it out.

U.S. health officials say swine flu could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures aren’t successful.
Those estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mean about twice the number of people who usually get sick in a normal flu season would be struck by swine flu. Officials said those projections would drop if a new vaccine is ready and widely available, as U.S. officials expect.
The U.S. may have as many as 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine available sometime in October, and U.S. tests of the new vaccine are to start shortly, federal officials said this week.
The infection estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the United States but was not as severe as the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. But influenza is notoriously hard to predict.

The number of deaths and illnesses would drop if the pandemic peters out or if efforts to slow its spread are successful, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner, the Associated Press is reporting.

Are you looking for meaningful volunteer work? Want to contribute to a ground-breaking project?

If so, consider becoming a volunteer with the Livable Communities Caregivers Coaching Program – a new, initiative from the Department of Senior Programs and Services.

A caregiver coach is a volunteer trained by professionals to provide one-on-one support to family caregivers and help them understand their options.  As a result, the caregivers are better able to make informed decisions to meet the challenges and responsibilities of caring for an older or disabled person.

The program aims to develop a corps of volunteers with caregiver coaching skills to be a part of the county’s  Livable Communities initiative. The initiative aims to make Westchester communities as senior-friendly as possible so older adults can remain in their homes as they age with dignity, independence and civic involvement.

The coaches will work with – not for – the caregivers. They do not take the place of professionals in the field or do caregiver tasks themselves, nor do they offer medical or legal advice.

Today 20 percent of Westchester residents – one in five people – is 60 or older and more than half of them have disabilities. The county planning department projects that in 2030, people over 60 will represent one-quarter of the population or one in four people.

Anyone can volunteer for the free program. If candidates have caregiver experience it is helpful, but not required. Caregiver coaches are stabilizing forces and sounding boards so the ideal coach should be optimistic, empathetic and non-judgmental.

For more information or to register, call DSPS at (914) 813-6441 or send an email to cap2@westchestergov.com.

The international AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at Rockland Community College in October. Residents are being asked to contribute a quilt panel to the  is a 54-ton, handmade tapestry.

The memorial quilt is comprised of 40,000 panels that include the names of more than 91,000 people who died of AIDS.

The quilt is being sponsored by RCC and TOUCH, Together Our Unity Can Heal, a Rockland group that provides services for people with AIDS and HIV.

For more information about the Quilt or to volunteer or to make a donation, contact TOUCH at (845) 268 – 8023×11, or visit: www.sunyrockland.edu/go/aids-quilt

The Putnam County Department of Health is sponsoring a FREE rabies vaccination clinic for pets of Putnam County residents on Saturday, July 25, 2009 from 10:00am – 12:00 noon at the Hubbard Lodge, 2920 Route 9 in Cold Spring.

Please bring proof of Putnam County residency and proof of prior rabies vaccination of your pet(s); tags are not acceptable. Dogs must be leashed, and cats and ferrets in carriers.

Call the health department for more information at 845-278-6130 or visit our website to download the animal release form at www.putnamcountyny.com .

Could it be that more than half of all people in the Lower Hudson Valley are overweight or obese? A report just issued by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says it’s true. Gillibrand is pushing for a ban on trans fats in school lunches and using the data to make her case.

To bolster her case, the senator cited statistics that she says reveals that 53.6 percent of Westchester residents, 60.4 percent of Rockland residents and 57.1 percent of Putnam residents are obese or overweight.

The report from her office says that the data is “derived from population 18 and older from the New York State Department of Health and U.S. Census bureau county population numbers.”

It was not clear from the report what time period the data covered.