November 5, 2009 6:30 AM

Swine Flu Vaccine For Prisoners? Don't Hold Your Breath in Oklahoma

By
Carlin DeGuerin Miller
Topics
Daily Blotter
(AP / CBS)
OKLAHOMA (CBS/AP) When it comes to getting the swine flu vaccine, prison inmates in Oklahoma would seem to have... no shot.

Prison officials in the Sooner State have asked for about 15,000 doses of the vaccine, but state health officials have stamped it "request denied."

They're not feeling too guilty about it either.

Health Department spokesman Larry Weatherford says no H1N1 vaccines have been given to the prisons and there are no plans to do so yet. Weatherford says the focus is on high-risk cases in the general population.

Half of Oklahoma's population is in the priority category for the vaccine, including children, pregnant women, and health care workers.

Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie says the request was made because one inmate arrived at a state prison with the H1N1 virus and that inmates as a whole are at high risk of infection because of their confinement.

The inmate who arrived with the virus is recovering in isolation.

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