Hawaii has the fifth-highest rate of H1N1, or “;swine flu,”; vaccinations in the nation, according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but local health officials say they would still like more people to get vaccinated.

“;The idea behind vaccinating for a pandemic kind of virus is you want as many people as possible vaccinated,”; said state Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino.

The CDC, using phone surveys, estimated that about 35 percent of Hawaii residents were vaccinated by February. About 55 percent of Hawaii children received the vaccine, and 23 percent of all adults.

Rhode Island has the highest rate at about 39 percent—three times higher than Mississippi, which has the lowest percentage of residents vaccinated, CDC officials said in the first state-by-state report on swine flu vaccinations.

About 72 million to 81 million Americans—about 24 percent—have been vaccinated since October, CDC officials said.

Doses were hard to come by at first because of supply limitations. But as flu cases dropped, so did demand. There are now tens of millions of unused doses.

  Remaining Swine Flu Vaccines No Longer Effective

 

Hawaii has received more than 600,000 vaccines and so far, about half of them have been used.

 

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About 33 percent of people in priority groups nationally got the vaccine. That includes children and young adults, health care workers, pregnant women and those with medical conditions that put them at higher risk for complications. Hawaii had a 43 percent vaccination rate among the initial target group.

Although outbreaks of the flu have been waning since January, CDC officials are renewing efforts to get people vaccinated after a resurgence of cases in Georgia and other Southeastern states that had low vaccination rates.

Officials said it is difficult to compare states' efforts because of different circumstances.

In Hawaii, Fukino said the vaccination rate benefited from the statewide public school immunization program, the swine flu outbreak last summer and publicity.

Fukino said children under 10 who have not received the second vaccine shot should get a booster from their pediatricians. And because supplies are now plentiful, anyone who has not been vaccinated should get the shot.

Since it was first identified last April, swine flu has sickened about 60 million Americans, hospitalized 265,000 and killed about 12,000. The U.S. death toll from the new H1N1 virus, declared a global epidemic, is about one-third of the estimated deaths from a regular flu season.