About 135,000 additional doses of influenza vaccine will be shipped to Oregon over the next two months, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS).

The first shipments, from vaccine manufacturer Aventis Pasteur, should arrive before the end of the month.

The DHS will distribute the supplies to county health departments and private providers around the state, and providers can expect doses of the flu shot to arrive through mid-January.

Locally, many private health- care organizations throughout Central Oregon have been administering flu shots.

The Crook County Health Department received a limited supply of the flu shot earlier this month, health officials reported, and will be holding a flu-shot clinic on Nov. 24 at the Carey Foster Hall on the Crook County fairgrounds.

But Crook County received its current supply of the flu shot after a DHS survey in October identified Crook County as one of 12 counties suffering a severe shortage based on the percent of high-priority people who had been vaccinated, according to the DHS Web site.

County health departments in Deschutes and Jefferson counties have not announced any upcoming flu-shot clinics.

The Jefferson County Health Department is still waiting to receive doses of the flu vaccine this season, according to health department officials, and has been referring people to local pharmacies in the meantime.

Under Oregon law, only high-priority groups are eligible to receive the flu shot. Providers who knowingly administer the flu shot to patients who do not fall into a high-priority group will incur a $500 fine for each repeat offense.

High-priority groups include children between 6 and 23 months, adults age 65 and older and people with chronic medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes and heart or lung disease.

Earlier this month, the Oregon DHS encouraged two priority groups – health care workers and caregivers or household contacts of children under 6 months – to seek out FluMist, a nasal spray of live, weakened influenza virus, instead of receiving a flu shot. Healthy people between 5 and 49 who are not pregnant, regardless of their priority status, may receive a dose of FluMist for flu protection this season, according to guidelines issued by the Oregon DHS.

To learn more about the flu shot or FluMist, call the statewide DHS hot line at 800-978-3040 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. To find upcoming vaccination clinics, contact local pharmacies or the county health department.

Yoko Minoura can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at yminoura@bendbulletin.com.