Committeewoman Cara Jensen

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius visited Saint Louis University on Tuesday to promote the new H1N1 influenza vaccine.

SLU’s Center for Vaccine Development was among eight sites picked to help develop a vaccine for the swine flu.

Last year, SLU received a $23.7 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to serve as a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit. SLU has been funded as a VTEU since 1989.

Meanwhile, the first shipments of the H1N1 shots arrived Monday in the St. Louis area. St. Louis County received 5,000 doses in nasal spray form, which will at first be given to health-care workers and emergency responders.