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Due to the overwhelming number of people who lined up Friday morning to receive their seasonal flu shot on the first day the Frederick County Health Department made it available, officials announced they have run out of the injectable form of the vaccine.

Clinics at Brunswick, Gov. Thomas Johnson and Urbana high schools opened at 10 a.m. to long lines of residents. But by 1 p.m., officials had run out of the injections.

The mist form of the vaccine was still available for children, ages 5-11 only, at Gov. Thomas Johnson and Brunswick high schools, according to a press release.

Officials said they expect new shipments of the seasonal flu vaccine, but don't know when they will arrive.

Department officials speculate the large turnout could be related to the concerns over the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu.

"This flu season there has been much information provided to the public regarding both types of flu — seasonal and H1N1," wrote Shawn G. Dennison, a Health's Department spokesman, in an e-mail. "There is a possibility that despite being promoted as a ‘season flu clinic,' people may have assumed that we were providing both types of vaccine."

The Health Department has 600 doses of FluMist, the nasal form of the vaccine, to ward off the H1N1 virus. It will first be distributed on a voluntary basis to children at Spring Ridge Elementary School, once officials prepare a consent form.

Since young children above all other people, including health care providers, have been found throughout the country to be the most susceptible to the H1N1 virus, they will be the first to be vaccinated.

If all the vaccine doses are used at Spring Ridge, other schools must wait for more doses to be available. If any doses are left over, Health Department officials will go to the next school on the list, the order of which was determined by lottery.

The Health Department does expect to receive more doses of the H1N1 vaccine to distribute to Frederick County residents, though it does not know when.

E-mail Sherry Greenfield at sgreenfield@gazette.net.