First Round Of Swine Flu Vaccines Coming Soon
On Thursday the United States announced that it has begun rolling out vaccinations against swine flu for the millions of Americans lining up, starting off with the first 600,000 doses set to be administered in coming days.
Anne Schuchat, deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that the initial orders were placed on Wednesday in 25 areas across the country, among the 50 states and four main metropolitan areas identified in the CDC program to be received by Tuesday.
"We are transitioning from the planning phase to the implementation phase," Schuchat told reporters. "This is really just the beginning."
The program is kicking off about two weeks earlier than expected, which is a relief to health experts that were afraid that the vaccine might not make it in time to protect the millions of Americans at risk from the flu season.
Initial doses will be administered in nasal spray form, which is only safe for adults up to age 49 and for children two years and older. The vaccine should be effective against A(H1N1) within eight days.
Schuchat expects that many of the first people receiving the vaccine will be health care workers that are likely to be exposed in the fight against the virus that has already caused over 3,900 deaths across the globe since it was discovered in April.
Last week, the U.S. government announced it expected to have six or seven million doses available in the first week of October. These numbers were confirmed by Schuchat on Thursday. Production would then be full fledged to ultimately make 250 million doses available at about 90,000 sites throughout the nation.
"We are planning to have enough vaccine for everybody who wants to be vaccinated," Schuchat said.
Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis said Thursday it had begun transporting the first load of swine flu shots to the United States, which has already ordered 979 million dollars worth of Fluviron H1N1 vaccine from the comp any.
Since the nasal spray vaccine contains a live but weakened virus, pregnant women will not be able to take it, but rather will wait for the injection version later this month.
Schuchat expressed concern about the incredibly adverse affect the A(H1N1) pandemic is having on pregnant women, saying that this year has seen 28 expectant mothers die of swine flu in the United States.
Even though clinical trials for pregnant women tested with the vaccine will not be complete until at least the end of October, the government is urged expecting women not to put it off since years of data on seasonal flu vaccines indicate very slight elevated risk from the dosage.
Schuchat also tried to calm fears about the safety of the vaccines in saying, "The H1N1 vaccine is being produced exactly the same way that the seasonal flu vaccines are produced, with exactly the same careful oversight."
"No corners have been cut at all."
She also added that around 300,000 courses of antiviral treatment in the form of liquid Tamiflu for children were released Wednesday.
Some of the treatments will be past their expiration dates, but the Food and Drug Administration has extended the usability of the drugs after testing found "that the anti-viral medicines are still potent and safe to use," she said.
The announcements come on the heels of a new report that cautioned that hospitals in 15 states could reach capacity if 35 percent of Americans contract H1N1.
Around 168,025 people in just California may need hospitalization and states may get to the point where they are forced to restrict non-flu-related discretionary hospitalizations due to limited bed availability and the massive burden on intensive care units, according to a report released Thursday by Trust for America’s Health.
A warning has been sounded by the government that swine flu could infect up to 150 million, or half of the U.S. population this fall and winter, causing up to 90,000 deaths.
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