Some children in Dane County are in swine flu vaccine limbo: They got one of two recommended doses before limited supply was directed at other groups, and now they can't get the second dose.

Despite the uncertainty parents might feel, doctors say the children are partially protected against the H1N1 virus and can get a full boost from a second dose even if it is given late.

Children younger than 10 are supposed to get two inoculations, four weeks apart, because their immune systems don't respond enough to one.

Many children got one dose last month at school clinics run by the Madison-Dane County Health Department. But a nationwide shortage of vaccine led the health department to postpone remaining school clinics and give scarce supply to revised target groups.

Private clinics are also focusing on the target groups: health-care workers, pregnant women, infant caregivers, children ages 6 months to 4 years and people ages 5 to 18 with chronic diseases.

School clinics likely will resume next month, when vaccine supply is expected to increase substantially, said Dr. Thomas Schlenker, director of the city-county health department. That's also when private clinics might have enough vaccine for people outside of the target groups.

In the meantime, as health officials report widespread swine flu in nearly all of Wisconsin and the country, a "bunch" of kids in Dane County who got one dose of vaccine can't get a second one, Schlenker said.

The single dose "gives them some partial protection," said Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UW Health.

A National Institutes of Health study in September said 36 percent of children ages 3 to 9 years got an adequate response from one dose of the swine flu vaccine, as did 25 percent of children ages 6 to 35 months. In older children and adults, the figure was about 80 percent, similar to the typical response to the seasonal flu vaccine.

The second swine flu immunization should be given four weeks after the first, but "there's no end time where it's too late to get it," Conway said. The immune system boost should be the same if given later, he said.

It also doesn't matter if one dose is a shot and the other is the nasal spray, he said.

Meanwhile, the health department and Madison-area health systems started getting more of the vaccine this week, though supply remains limited, officials said Wednesday.

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