Health care facilities await delayed flu vaccines
October 14th, 2005 by RespiteMatch.comBy CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press Writer
October 13, 2005, 11:38 AM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. — It’s that time of year when the elderly and others at risk for the flu are vaccinated, but a delay in shipments has left some health care providers still waiting for their doses.
The Food and Drug Administration has begun clearing doses from Chiron following a delay, with shipments expected over the next several weeks.
The delay, meanwhile, has left nursing homes that ordered from the Bay Area biotechnology company without their vaccinations.
“This year it’s more an issue of timing, not a shortage,” said John Ricci, spokesman for the Monroe County Health Department. “We’ve heard from some physicians and nursing homes that are wondering and waiting because they ordered from Chiron.”
The same is true in Oswego County, where many nursing homes have yet to receive their orders, said Kathleen Smith, commissioner of health services.
Flu clinics in Oswego County are being delayed until the first week of November as a result, she said.
A survey of 120 local health departments around the country last week found all but six reporting delays in getting any vaccine or only partial shipments, according to the National Association of County & City Health Officials.
The flu season typically begins in late October and may run through April, with health officials recommending those most at risk get vaccinated this month.
Prior to Oct. 24, shots this year are only being given to at-risk populations, including people over age 65, nursing home residents and young children.
Healthy individuals are advised to get vaccinated starting in November.
If shipments don’t arrive at nursing homes by the end of the month, health care providers will likely coordinate to redistribute doses.
Counties scrambled to redistribute supplies to give priority to those most at risk last year when contamination problems at a Chiron factory in Liverpool, England, left the United States with half as much flu vaccine as anticipated.
“Frankly, that was the only way we were able to get through the year. When you cut supplies in half, you have to get everyone to cooperate,” he said.
Redistribution efforts haven’t been put into motion so far this season.
“But if (nursing homes) don’t have vaccines by the end of the month, they will probably start making more fervent pleas,” Ricci said.
Flu infects about 82 million people and kills 36,000 every year. About 193 million high-risk people are advised to get shots.
Despite the delay, health officials say a shortage isn’t expected this year.
Even without Chiron’s supplies, there would be 71 million doses provided by Sanofi-Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline.
