North County parents and health-care providers who have been waiting for shipments of the H1N1 vaccine may have reason for optimism, according to a county official who said he expects an additional 411,000 doses of the vaccine to arrive "in the next one to two weeks."

However, that upbeat assessment seems somewhat contrary to public statements made Wednesday by the head of the Centers for Disease Control, who said production is weeks behind schedule and the vaccine probably won't be widely available until mid-November or December.

Doctors in San Diego County were set to receive about 26,000 doses of the vaccine earlier this month, according to Jose Alvarez, a spokesman for San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency. However, Alvarez said Wednesday that his office doesn't track whether those shipments ever actually made it and directed inquiries to the California Department of Public Health.

"All of the information we have said they should have arrived, but the California Department of Public Health keeps the official shipping logs," Alvarez said.

An official with the state agency said Wednesday he was still researching whether the doses had gone out as promised.

Regardless, it seems few of the vaccines have made their way to North County ---- several large pediatric medical groups and all three of the region's main hospitals said this week that they had not received a single dose. Meanwhile, pediatricians have been dealing with a barrage of calls from anxious parents who want their children vaccinated.

El Camino Pediatrics in Encinitas, a pediatric groups that did receive a shipment of the vaccine, said the doses were snapped up quickly.

Dr. Christine Wood, of El Camino, said her office sent out e-mail notes to interested parents as soon as a few hundred doses of vaccine arrived and got an immediate response.

"We had 34 people walk in within one hour of us sending the notice out," Wood said.

Concern may have ramped up after a 5-year-old girl died last week in San Diego from the H1N1 virus, also called swine flu virus, but so far there hasn't been widespread panic, Wood said.

"We had a lot of parents in our office lining up for it, but I don't think it was anything unreasonable," she said. "Everyone was OK."

Local pediatricians find themselves not only trying to diagnose possible H1N1 cases, but also fielding an ever-increasing barrage of calls from parents who have heard all month that the vaccine is coming soon.

Sandy McInerney, the registered nurse director at Graybill Medical Group in Escondido, said phones have been ringing all day every day with parents seeking the vaccine. Graybill has one of North County's largest pediatric practices.

"They're frustrated. They want to know where they can go to get it, but we don't really have anything we can tell them because we haven't received any," McInerney said. "We just put their name on a waiting list, but we've received no information on estimated date of delivery or what quantity we will receive."

Doctors said this week that, though they have been working long hours, they have not seen desire for vaccine, or concern over possible swine flu symptoms, spill over into bad behavior or panic.

Dr. Douglas Dechario, of the Children's Medical Group in San Marcos and Escondido, said patient volume has increased about 20 percent at his practice, and he attributed the increase to H1N1 flu. But he said parents are not so frantic that a chat with their doctor can't calm them down.

"The patients are anxious, but I don't think they're hysterical. I don't think they're off the wall," Dechario said.

Dr. Pamela Wells, a pediatrician with the Scripps Coastal Medical Group in Carlsbad, agreed. She said seasoned doctors and nurses have seen vaccine shortages before, whether for the regular seasonal flu or chicken pox, and are well versed in "how to calm patients."

"Right now, we need to encourage parents to be very responsible about keeping their children home and to avoid taking them around other children if they have a fever or other symptoms," Wells said.

Call staff writer Paul Sisson at 760-901-4087.