Officials, Doctors Worry About Flu Vaccine Shortage
Health Officials Ask Healthy Adults To Forego Vaccines
POSTED: 8:15 am CDT October 6, 2004
UPDATED: 10:59 am CDT October 8, 2004
Correction: The price of a flu vaccine dose at Kohll's Pharmacy in Omaha, Neb., to the public has remained the same. The manufacturer's price for a dose immediately doubled.
A top federal health official is lamenting what she calls "a very fragile vaccine production system."Dr. Julie Gerberding, who heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the nation needs a long-term way to maintain adequate supplies of flu vaccine.
Officials are urging people not to rush out and get shots now that the nation's vaccine supply has been cut in half due to the shutdown of a major supplier. British officials have suspended the license of Chiron Corp. because of manufacturing problems.Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson asked the public for help to avoid turning this year's flu vaccine shortage into a crisis.Appearing Wednesday morning on CBS' "The Early Show," Gerberding urged healthy people to defer their influenza shots to allow people at risk to be vaccinated first. She said officials should "prioritize" the disbursement of the injections.Those considered at highest risk include: people over 65; younger people with chronic medical conditions like asthma and diabetes; those with compromised immune systems; pregnant women in the second and third trimesters; and very young children between the ages of 6 and 23 months.Doctors are trying to figure out what they'll tell anxious patients who will start demanding a flu shot before supplies run out. Many doctors' offices, like Needham Pediatrics in Needham, Mass., already have hundreds of doses of flu vaccine from other manufacturers and are giving shots to high-risk patients.Public flu shot clinics have been canceled in a number of areas around the nation until health officials get more information."It's still early in the season. We have time," said Dr. Bonnie Reibman, of East Greenwich Pediatrics in Rhode Island. "It's not December, which is when we ran into a shortage last year when we were in the middle of a flu epidemic at the time."The news of the cutback brought immediate restrictions at Kohll's Pharmacy in Omaha, Neb. Now, only high-risk people qualify for flu shots."We'd hate to run out, and then a nervous senior citizen comes in and couldn't get the vaccine because we gave it to someone who was healthier and didn't need it," said pharmacy owner David Kohll.Kohll said it's too soon to worry about a shortage."Practically every year there's something that happens that makes people nervous, but then things always work out in the end," Kohll said.Doctors stress there's no reason to panic if you can't get a flu shot this year, and the vast majority of healthy people who contract the disease weather it just fine."They'll be miserable for a few days. It's a bad respiratory illness with aches and pains. By and large, the greater majority of healthy people, including children, will recover without complications," said Dr. Norman Rosin, of Needham Pediatrics.Experts say people can help prevent the flu by washing their hands thoroughly and often, covering mouths when sneezing or coughing, and staying home from work or school if they are sick."An epidemic of influenza occurs virtually every year in this country. This year will be no exception. Do you think it will be worse this year because of lack of vaccine? It's hard to know," said Dr. Paul Offit, the chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.Offit takes the influenza virus very seriously, but he feels many people don't. Last year, 152 children died of the flu. Most of them had been healthy before getting infected.The Chiron vaccine wasn't made for children, so their supply will still be sufficient.Still, health professionals are questioning why this problem keeps arising. In three of the past four years, the U.S. government has encouraged older citizens to get their shot first, in case of a shortage."It's been a rough few years with vaccine supply," said Dr. Steve Englender, of the Cincinnati Health Department. "This year, from way it sounds ... it may eclipse our experience in prior years."Englender advised people at high risk to call their doctors now -- before the supply they do have runs out.Chiron was supposed to send up to 48 million flu shots. That leaves the United States with 52 million shots from Aventis and 1.5 million doses of FluMist, and those companies are already warning: Don't expect any more vaccine from them.Jeannie Keating, of the Visiting Nurse Service in Indianapolis, said that to adjust for the shortage, her group is ordering more doses of FluMist, a nasal flu vaccine that is only for use on healthy people ages 5 to 49. Since FluMist contains the live flu virus, it's too dangerous for babies and older folks. The vaccine debuted last year, but it isn't widely used now because most insurance companies won't pay for it.Doctors say more U.S. companies should be focused on making the vaccines to prevent such shortages.Officials say a sharp rise in demand is also increasing the problem. They say four times as many flu shots are being used now compared to 15 years ago.
Fact Sheet: Chiron's License Suspended
CDC: Updated Flu Vaccine Recommendations Officials are urging people not to rush out and get shots now that the nation's vaccine supply has been cut in half due to the shutdown of a major supplier. British officials have suspended the license of Chiron Corp. because of manufacturing problems.Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson asked the public for help to avoid turning this year's flu vaccine shortage into a crisis.Appearing Wednesday morning on CBS' "The Early Show," Gerberding urged healthy people to defer their influenza shots to allow people at risk to be vaccinated first. She said officials should "prioritize" the disbursement of the injections.Those considered at highest risk include: people over 65; younger people with chronic medical conditions like asthma and diabetes; those with compromised immune systems; pregnant women in the second and third trimesters; and very young children between the ages of 6 and 23 months.Doctors are trying to figure out what they'll tell anxious patients who will start demanding a flu shot before supplies run out. Many doctors' offices, like Needham Pediatrics in Needham, Mass., already have hundreds of doses of flu vaccine from other manufacturers and are giving shots to high-risk patients.Public flu shot clinics have been canceled in a number of areas around the nation until health officials get more information."It's still early in the season. We have time," said Dr. Bonnie Reibman, of East Greenwich Pediatrics in Rhode Island. "It's not December, which is when we ran into a shortage last year when we were in the middle of a flu epidemic at the time."The news of the cutback brought immediate restrictions at Kohll's Pharmacy in Omaha, Neb. Now, only high-risk people qualify for flu shots."We'd hate to run out, and then a nervous senior citizen comes in and couldn't get the vaccine because we gave it to someone who was healthier and didn't need it," said pharmacy owner David Kohll.Kohll said it's too soon to worry about a shortage."Practically every year there's something that happens that makes people nervous, but then things always work out in the end," Kohll said.Doctors stress there's no reason to panic if you can't get a flu shot this year, and the vast majority of healthy people who contract the disease weather it just fine."They'll be miserable for a few days. It's a bad respiratory illness with aches and pains. By and large, the greater majority of healthy people, including children, will recover without complications," said Dr. Norman Rosin, of Needham Pediatrics.Experts say people can help prevent the flu by washing their hands thoroughly and often, covering mouths when sneezing or coughing, and staying home from work or school if they are sick."An epidemic of influenza occurs virtually every year in this country. This year will be no exception. Do you think it will be worse this year because of lack of vaccine? It's hard to know," said Dr. Paul Offit, the chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.Offit takes the influenza virus very seriously, but he feels many people don't. Last year, 152 children died of the flu. Most of them had been healthy before getting infected.The Chiron vaccine wasn't made for children, so their supply will still be sufficient.Still, health professionals are questioning why this problem keeps arising. In three of the past four years, the U.S. government has encouraged older citizens to get their shot first, in case of a shortage."It's been a rough few years with vaccine supply," said Dr. Steve Englender, of the Cincinnati Health Department. "This year, from way it sounds ... it may eclipse our experience in prior years."Englender advised people at high risk to call their doctors now -- before the supply they do have runs out.Chiron was supposed to send up to 48 million flu shots. That leaves the United States with 52 million shots from Aventis and 1.5 million doses of FluMist, and those companies are already warning: Don't expect any more vaccine from them.Jeannie Keating, of the Visiting Nurse Service in Indianapolis, said that to adjust for the shortage, her group is ordering more doses of FluMist, a nasal flu vaccine that is only for use on healthy people ages 5 to 49. Since FluMist contains the live flu virus, it's too dangerous for babies and older folks. The vaccine debuted last year, but it isn't widely used now because most insurance companies won't pay for it.Doctors say more U.S. companies should be focused on making the vaccines to prevent such shortages.Officials say a sharp rise in demand is also increasing the problem. They say four times as many flu shots are being used now compared to 15 years ago.
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