With limited swine flu vaccine available nationally, state officials asked public and private health care providers Tuesday to hold off on mass public vaccination clinics unless they are targeted to those most at risk.

The state Department of Health Services said the following five groups are now the highest priority for vaccination: pregnant women; persons who live with or provide care for infants age 6 months or younger; health care personnel who have direct contact with patients or infectious material; children ages 6 months to 4 years; and people ages 5 to 18 with chronic medical conditions.

People in those groups are most likely to suffer serious complications or transmit the flu, said Dr. Seth Foldy, state health officer. Many of those at highest risk already see their doctors on a regular basis, so that is a likely place for them to get vaccinated, he said. Public health agencies also are reaching out to high-risk groups, he said.

The state recommendations align with the policy announced late last week by the Madison-Dane County Health Department. The department canceled a majority of the school-based swine flu vaccine clinics that had been scheduled for Monday, as well as all other remaining clinics until further notice.

The city-county health department also shifted its policy to give priority to the high-risk groups announced Tuesday by the state. Those recommendations are consistent with guidelines developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wisconsin has received about 407,000 doses of swine flu vaccine, about 300,000 doses fewer than it was once projected to receive by now, according to state officials. Foldy said the national shortage is due to the slow growth of the virus in laboratories, where it is put in eggs and harvested to make the vaccine.

On a positive note, Foldy said hundreds of thousands of health care workers in the state already have been vaccinated. But if more vaccine had been available for school-aged children and college students by now, the advance of the flu could have been blunted, he said.

The restrictions announced Tuesday probably will be in place for at least a couple of weeks, said Karen Timberlake, state secretary of health services. Community clinics will resume as vaccine becomes readily available, she said.

An online "clinic finder" is available at pandemic.wisconsin.gov or www.wisconsinfluclinic.info. Those without Internet access can call 211.

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