Clinics to ration flu vaccinations
Panhandle Health District in Coeur d’Alene has canceled its flu shot clinics, except for those in assisted living centers, following news that British regulators have pulled the license of the second leading manufacturer of the vaccine.
Nearly half the United States’ expected supply of flu vaccine won’t be delivered because of the action against Chiron Corp., company officials said Tuesday. Problems in the Chiron’s Liverpool, England, factory caused bacterial contamination in some of its vaccine in August.
The announcement, which caught U.S. health officials by surprise and came roughly a month before flu season starts, raises serious concern about whether there will be enough vaccine to protect young children, older Americans and others who are at greatest risk.
Healthy people should “forgo vaccination at this time,” to allow people at high risk of flu complications and death to be immunized first, said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gerberding said Aventis Pasteur, the only other major maker of flu shots, expects to meet its production goal of 54 million doses, and health officials are working to assure that it is evenly distributed.
“We don’t want to create a rush for vaccine,” Gerberding said. “Take a deep breath. This is not an emergency. We’ll work through this as we have with other shortages in the past.”
The Panhandle Health District had ordered 4,700 doses from Chiron. It has received 700 doses made by Aventis, and expects to receive another 2,100 doses from that company.
“We’re just asking everyone to work with us,” said Susan Cuff, health district spokeswoman. “This is a changing situation.”
Meanwhile, Spokane Regional Health District’s first flu shot clinic will proceed today as planned. The agency ordered all its vaccine this year from Aventis.
Only last week Chiron said it planned to begin shipping about 48 million doses of vaccine to the United States from its Liverpool plant this month. But on Tuesday, British regulators suspended for three months the release of vaccine. In August, Chiron announced that it would delay delivering vaccine because some lots did not meet sterility requirements.
“This is a much bigger hit, and it’s going to cause serious problems,” said Martin Blaser, chairman of medicine at New York University and president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Very little extra vaccine is made each year.
“One of the problems is we don’t have a national policy” on vaccine production, Blaser said. “It’s just based on whether companies want to be in or not.”
In an average year, flu kills 36,000 people in the United States and causes more than 200,000 hospitalizations; the season typically runs from November through March.
Officials have said the flu strain expected this season, the same one that circulated last year, is known to cause more hospitalizations than other strains. Add to that a vaccine shortage, and Blaser predicted that “this will be a worse flu year than usual.”
Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said U.S. scientists will visit the Chiron plant and meet with U.K. regulators to evaluate the British report and “see what other recommendations can be made.”
Only people at highest risk for flu-related complications will be able to get the flu shot today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Spokane Regional Health District headquarters, 1101 W. College Ave. The agency typically gives the shots to high-risk groups early in the flu season, before inviting the general public to get the vaccine.
The Spokane agency has ordered 8,000 doses. A partial shipment has come in and the rest is expected by the end of October. The agency already was planning to ask parents to get children vaccinated by their regular health-care providers.
The federal government Tuesday asked health-care providers to get vaccine to the following groups first:
• children 6 to 23 months old,
• adults 65 and older,
• people with chronic medical conditions,
• women who will be pregnant during flu season,
• residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities,
• children 6 months to 18 years of age on chronic aspirin therapy,
• health-care workers doing direct patient care,
• out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children younger than 6 months.
Since vaccine is made from influenza virus strains grown in eggs, people with egg allergies should not get the flu shot.
The Spokane Regional Health District will continue flu shot clinics at its headquarters Tuesdays through Fridays during flu season while vaccine supplies hold. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Fridays. Friday hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In addition, the health district plans to give the shots at the Spokane Valley Senior Center, 11423 E. Mission Ave., on Mondays, starting Oct. 11, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The fee is $15 per shot. Medicare covers the cost for most enrollees.
Symptoms of flu include: fever, headache, extreme tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose and muscle aches. Complications from the virus can be deadly to high-risk people.