Public health departments are continuing to offer flu shots to people who did not get them in the fall, in response to the reports of suffering residents throughout the valley.

The Stanislaus County Health Services Agency has 500 doses available.

"We usually stop giving flu shots in late December because we have run out of vaccine by then," said Rose Ann Peterson, who oversees the county immunization clinic.

The California Department of Health Services gave Stanislaus County 6,000 doses of vaccine for this year's flu season.

Peterson said the health department will offer shots until it runs out of vaccine.

Low-cost flu shots are available at the health department's immunization clinic at 820 Scenic Drive, Modesto; no one will be turned away if they cannot pay.

Clinic hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The clinic is closed Fridays. The number there is 558-4818.

San Joaquin County's Public Health Department also will continue to give flu shots while the supply lasts.

"It's limited at this point in time, since we start giving flu shots in October," said Connie Cassineto, county public information officer.

Vaccinations are available at the public health clinic at 1601 E. Hazelton Road in Stockton from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays, and 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays. The cost is $2.

The flu bug has created a special problem for some school districts -- not enough substitutes for the many teachers who have called in sick.

One recent day, nearly one- fourth of the teachers in the Merced City School District were out.

Stanislaus County has not experienced the same problem with sick teachers, said Norman Lee, assistant superintendent for human resources and student services for the Office of Education.

Modesto City Schools also has weathered the flu season without a serious problem, said a spokeswoman.

Not so in Merced. "We can't fill the jobs," said Joycelyn Simonet, personnel assistant for the city school district.

"There's quite a few teachers out with the flu," she said, in addition to the normal vacancies created when teachers take leave, have surgery or are out pregnant.

On the worst day, 150 of the district's 650 teachers were sick, Simonet said. The district averages about 70 teacher absences a day.

When the district can't find enough substitutes, a school gets creative.

"They group classes together, or the principal goes in and teaches a class," Simonet said, or the staff relies more heavily on specialists or part-timers.

The Merced city district shares its limited pool of substitutes with most of the 21 school districts in Merced County, Simonet said.

"And the flu has no favorites," she said. "Substitutes have been known to turn down jobs because they have the flu, too."

Bee staff writers Donna Birch, Mike Conway and Ken Carlson contributed to this report.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.