The streets of Millvale have been pretty quiet since the Sept. 17 flood closed businesses, but they came alive last week when The Spirit of Health rolled into town bearing flu shots.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette People line up for flu shots last Wednesday at The Spirit of Health van outside the flood-damaged Neighborhood Wellness Site on North Avenue in Millvale. The Sisters of St. Francis are using the van to distribute shots this year because their clinic was damaged. Click photo for larger image.

Word spread quickly, and people from throughout the area made a pilgrimage to the mobile health van to get a dose of the vaccine, which is in short supply nationwide this year.

"There were 15 to 20 people in the street before the van opened its doors at 10 a.m. [Oct. 18]," said Sister Lorraine Wesolowski, of the Sisters of St. Francis in Millvale.

"At lunch time, there was another line outside, and by the time they closed around 2 p.m., the nurse had given out close to 100 shots. In fact, she had to turn away about six people."

Luigi D'Andrea was one of those.

"I could see all the people, so I asked what was going on," said D'Andrea, a business owner who is trying to salvage the remains of his North Avenue shop. Suffering from chronic bronchitis and emphysema, D'Andrea, 69, met the guidelines to get a flu shot this year.

But the response was so overwhelming on Oct. 18, he had to be put on the waiting list for two days later.

The Spirit of Health van is run by the sisters' Millvale Franciscan Wellness Ministry. For years, the ministry has provided annual flu shots to the Millvale community through its clinic, Neighborhood Wellness Site, next to Lincoln Pharmacy on North Avenue. The sisters established the clinic nine years ago to provide health care services such as cholesterol screening, blood pressure testing, education and counseling to Millvale residents.

But last month's flood damaged the facility and it is closed.

The clinic was always a popular place for the elderly to receive their flu shots, but the current vaccine shortage made it the only place.

"Because our main site was flooded out and it was flu season, we wanted to make sure we addressed the needs of the community," Wesolowski said.

So, they brought in the 30-foot-long van, which had been parked safely above flood waters at the Sisters of St. Francis motherhouse on Hawthorne Street in Millvale.

The $90,000 van was purchased a year ago with grant money from the tobacco industry settlement and has traveled to nearby parishes during the past year to provide health care services. With the demise of the St. Francis Health System in 2003, the Millvale Franciscan Wellness Ministry collaborated with the Sisters of Mercy and Mercy Hospital to join the Parish Congregational Nurse and Health Ministries Program.

Community parish Nurse Dorothy Mayernik said the Millvale Franciscan Wellness Ministry has had a standing order for flu vaccine from the Allegheny County Health Department. "We order the vaccine in February and tell them how much we think we'll need. Last year, we used 200 injections for people at the wellness center, and I ended up throwing some bottles away because we'd ordered more than we needed."

This year, they didn't have enough. "We're lucky we even got [the vaccine], because none of the doctors in Millvale got it, and that's where most people normally go to get their flu shots," Mayernik said. She noted that last year, they gave the flu vaccines to anyone who came in and asked.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Nurse Dorothy Mayernik, gives a flu shot to Dayna Dorsey, of Shaler, in The Spirit of Health van in Millvale. Click photo for larger image.

When the van returned to Millvale last Wednesday, a sizable crowd was waiting.

Rose Ross, of Shaler, had taken her parents and a friend to Oakland to get the flu shot two days before. "But when we saw the people lined up four to five city blocks away, we just drove on by. My father recently had surgery, and he couldn't stand in that line in the cold weather," Ross said.

After hearing that The Spirit of Health van was administering shots in Millvale, they drove there but arrived too late and were told by a police officer to come back two days later.

"The people here are wonderful to help out like this," said Ross, breathing a sigh of relief last Wednesday as her parents received their flu shots in the van. "It's really been a very stressful ordeal. I'm glad they got their shots this year."

Not everyone was as fortunate.

"We had to turn down over 100 people," Mayernik said.

She doubts she will receive any more flu shots soon, if at all this season.

"It was a tiring, stressful day," she said.

"I never expected to give 100 flu shots in one day, and when you tell them there's not enough vaccine, it really creates a big problem. ... When it's related to your health, people are concerned.

"It's very difficult for me because, as a nurse, I want to help people and now I have to say, 'I'm sorry. I don't have any vaccine to give you.'"

George McKee, 62, of West View, has a prescription for the shot, but his doctor was unable to provide it, so he waited at the van and acknowledged the possibility that he might not be able to get a shot in Millvale, either.

"Traveling around to find a flu shot is difficult," said McKee, who suffers from heart problems and liver damage and is not supposed to exert himself. "It's like looking for a yard sale -- you see something, and you want to go buy it, but you're not sure it will still be there."

A volunteer counseled McKee on ways to stay healthy. "Wash your hands, stay away from people who are sick, eat right and get lots of rest."

Mayernik said that ministry volunteers have been doling out advice to people who were turned away. "We try to point out the positive and tell them to keep taking good care of themselves. Because even if they don't get the flu shot, that doesn't necessarily mean they're doomed."

Getting a flu shot doesn't guarantee 100 percent protection, either, said Laura Schmidt, manager of Lincoln Pharmacy, which lost all of its equipment and inventory in the flood. The staff and distributors worked to get the pharmacy reopened within 24 hours.

People shouldn't panic over the shortage, Schmidt said.

"I think the worst part is seeing the elderly people scrambling and standing in line. In this area, the flu doesn't typically hit until late December. You should get the shot early because of the shortage, but you still have a month to really be concerned about it. If you get it too soon, it might wear off by February."

Both Mayernik and Schmidt advise people to get their shots at Heinz Field but to avoid standing outside in long lines, if possible. "That site has the greatest number of flu shots," Schmidt said.

"You can't catch the flu from standing in the cold, but your resistance is down, and most of these people shouldn't be standing anywhere for that period of time," she said. "They won't catch the flu, but if they're the sickest people out there who need it the most, they shouldn't be standing in lines like that."