Flu Shot Supply Ample for California's San Gabriel Valley
Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 18:00 CDT
By Debbie Pfeiffer, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Calif.
Sep. 27--Last year, Montebello resident Nora Morales searched weeks for flu shot clinics for herself, her handicapped daughter and 89-year-old father.
She finally found one in La Mirada late in the fall.
"It was a big hassle. My doctor didn't have the vaccine and we couldn't find a clinic anywhere," she said. "Eventually, we had to wait in a long line at a clinic put on at a Sav-on."
But with more suppliers of the vaccine this year, Morales and others like her should have an easier time finding clinics in the months ahead, say area health officials.
There are now four manufacturers of the vaccine and Chiron Corp., the British manufacturer that had its license suspended last year leading to a vaccine shortage, has since been cleared for production, said Dr. Alex Wu, a physician at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier.
Several hospital officials said they won't know exactly how much of the vaccine will be available until the end of October or early November.
Will Tatum, who heads up Kaiser Permanente's adult immunization task force for the East San Gabriel Valley, is confident Kaiser will have enough vaccine supply for patients this year. Kaiser is scheduling immunization clinics for mid-October.
"All of the high-risk members -- high risk being people with chronic illness, senior citizens, children with chronic illness --they are all encouraged to get the flu shot," Tatum said. "As well as people who are family members of those individuals, because they are vectors. We would encourage everyone, particularly people who fall under those categories."
Annette Macias said Citrus Valley Health Partners, which runs hospitals in Covina, West Covina and Glendora, has ordered enough vaccine stock.
"We did make a large enough order to take care of the community," she said.
Citrus Valley will offer a vaccine clinic for seniors over 65 years old or people with chronic illness on Oct. 17. Flu shots will cost $5. For more information call (626) 814-2464.
The companies providing the vaccine are Sanofi Pasteur, delivering 60 million doses; as many as 26 million doses from Chiron; 8 million doses from GlaxoSmithKline and 3 million doses of nasal spray vaccine from MedImmune Inc.
Los Angeles County health officials have been told there are close to 100 million doses available nationwide, but the county doesn't yet know how many doses it will get, said Jonathan Fielding, director of public health and health officer for the county.
To be on the safe side, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, has issued a guideline that only higher risk groups can get the vaccine until Oct. 24.
"It's to ensure people at the greatest risk of complication from the flu have access to the vaccine," Wu said.
That group includes people over age 65, persons ages 2 to 64 with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and asthma, children ages 6 to 23 months, pregnant women, health-care workers who provide direct patient care and caregivers of children aged less than six months.
It is essential that people in these groups get the shots before the flu season, from late December to early March, because in an average year the flu can cause 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States, Wu said.
After Oct. 24, people of all ages should be eligible for the vaccination, Wu added.
County officials should start offering flu clinics the second week of October, Fielding said.
Clinics with flu vaccine were hard to come by last fall, after contamination at a Chiron vaccine factory in Liverpool, England, led to severe shortages. Health officials initially recommended only priority groups get the shot.
Staff writer Jason Kosareff contributed to this story.
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Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune
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