Just 48 hours into a public appeal to gather any remaining flu vaccine in the Quad-Cities, 940 doses have been placed in a central repository.

And 200 of those turned right around and were injected into the arms of some of the patients at highest risk.

"So far, it's working," Dr. Louis Katz said Thursday of the cooperative venture to gather the influenza vaccine, which is temporarily in short supply.

"There are 740 (doses) left as of 11 a.m. (Thursday), and we're out scouring the community for more to put in the repository," said Katz, the medical director of the Scott County Health Department.

Representatives from various segments of the Quad-City medical community met Monday night and unveiled plans Tuesday on how best to get the limited flu vaccine to those at high risk. In essence, the plan calls for any business that has the vaccine to contact the Genesis Visiting Nurse Association, or VNA, at (319) 421-5500 and inform it of the amount of vaccine they are holding.

Sites with the vaccine then will be asked to voluntarily provide it to the VNA repository in order for it to be redistributed where needed most.

All public flu clinics have been postponed until an ample supply of the vaccine arrives in the Quad-Cities. That is expected to happen either later this month or in early to mid-December.

Before postponing the clinics, 13,000 flu shots had already been given in Scott and Rock Island counties.

Rock Island County, in fact, ran out of the vaccine before the end of October.

But the Quad-City public health community realized it is not possible to adequately screen for high-risk patients while in the field — at public flu shot clinics, for instance.

It takes a person's healthcare provider, who has the medical records in hand, to determine who most needs the vaccine.

This year's vaccine scenario will prompt changes in future plans for getting flu shots to those who need them, said Larry Barker, the director of the

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Scott County Health Department.

"We'll look where we will be at each year," he said. "Planning should begin early."

But this year is an anomaly. Delivery of adequate amounts of the vaccine has been delayed because of manufacturing difficulties.

"Hopefully, this will never happen again," Katz said.

Anyone at high risk and needing a flu shot should contact their healthcare provider at the end of the week to check on the availability of the vaccine. The 200 doses distributed this week went to the dialysis unit and diabetic clinic at Genesis Medical Center and to the River Valley Pediatric Group for at-risk children.

Several hundred doses are expected to arrive Tuesday at Genesis, with a portion of those going into the repository, Katz said.

He praised the medical community for coming together on the effort, saying, "I don't think we're going to end up with a public health emergency out of this."