N.C. State Health Director Jeff Engel said North Carolina will get $7.5 million from the federal government to pay for a "massive" immunization campaign against the H1N1 flu virus.  An additional $2.6 million would go toward hospital preparedness efforts.

After outbreaks of the H1N1 flu virus in summer camps across the country and here in North Carolina, federal officials are asking states to begin planning how they'll distribute a vaccine against the disease.   Engel said while the vaccine is still under development, delivery is targeted for mid-October.  

"This appears to be a disease of young people between the ages of five and 34," he said.  "Roughly 70 percent of the world's cases have been in those age groups. So naturally, you want to immunize that age group for the coming season."

Engel said state and federal officials are considering school-based vaccine clinics to get children immunized against the disease and that the Department of Public Instruction is already on board for the planning process. Public health officials are concerned that the virus, which has been considered mild, may grow stronger with the advent of traditional flu season.

"People will start gathering indoors again as kids come back to the classroom, colleges and universities reopen, and the air gets colder and drier, which the flu virus seems to like," said Engel.  "So we think all those factors are going to announce the next arrival."  Click on the video link above to hear more from Dr. Engel.

The vaccinations will be voluntary and will not be required for students to attend school.  According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, 726 schools were closed across the United States at the flu's peak in May. Numerous summer camps across North Carolina have experienced flu outbreaks this summer.  Duke University announced in June that over a dozen campers in its summer programs had been ill.  A Boy Scout camp in Asheville, a church camp in Randolph County, and a summer camp in Bladen County also had outbreaks.

The H1N1 vaccine may need to be delivered in two shots - that would require an estimated 600 million doses of vaccine.   Seasonal flu vaccine will be given in a separate immunization.