Health: Flu Shots Run Short
By Mike Brue, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.
Nov. 11–Altru Clinic has canceled plans to provide special flu shot clinics at the sites of local employers in coming weeks.
Instead, some of that vaccine will go to long-term care facilities in Grand Forks County that have not received all the vaccine they ordered. Some facilities have received less than half their order.
Some of those facilities had ordered supplies that were to be produced by English manufacturer Chiron Corp., which recently announced it is unable to produce as much vaccine as the 18 million to 26 million doses it anticipated producing for the U.S. market.
As a result, providers and distributors of that vaccine will get “substantially less” of it than they ordered, and some vaccine destined for the United States won’t arrive until later this month or in December, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Thursday.
Altru officials say its full vaccine supply has arrived, and they are working with the Grand Forks Public Health Department to make sure local long-term care facilities have enough, said Danielle Kovarik, a community health nurse who runs the department’s influenza program.
The department still is determining the number of flu shots needed to cover the nursing care facilities, Kovarik said.
The special employer on-site flu shot clinics had been set up by Altru’s occupational health department and were to take place during the next few weeks, said Shannon Hansen, Altru’s infection control coordinator.
Now, participating employers have been told there no longer will be enough vaccine to cover all the scheduled clinics in the program.
Instead, Altru will hold special flu shot clinics at its Rehabilitation Center for employees of participating businesses. Participating employers are expected to get clinic times and dates as soon as today.
Altru’s public flu shot clinics began Wednesday. More information about them is available by calling its clinics, or logging on to www.altru.org and clicking on the box that says “Altru’s Flu Shot Finder.”
Local public health workers have been busy the past 1½ weeks holding flu shot clinics for people 65 and older in Grand Forks County, Kovarik said.
In addition, a special Seniors Day at Alerus Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday will make flu shots available to senior citizens.
To ensure prompt vaccine coverage for people most at risk, the CDC recommended until Oct. 24 that the nation’s health authorities giving flu shot priority to people ages 65 and older, residents of long-term care facilities, people ages 2 to 64 with chronic health conditions, children ages 6 months to 23 months, pregnant women, health-care personnel who provide direct patient care, and household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of babies younger than 6 months.
Complications from the flu kill an estimated 36,000 Americans a year.
The nation expects to get more than 80 million doses, compared with 61 million for the 2004-05 flu season. About 71 million had been distributed as of Thursday, the CDC said.
Scattered flu shot shortages around the country should be eased by 10 million new doses scheduled to be delivered this month, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC director. In addition, the government is buying 800,000 doses to shore up supplies, she said.
In addition to the Chiron production cutback, CDC acknowledged Thursday that it’s possible demand has exceeded expectations in some communities because of concerns about an avian influenza, or “bird flu,” or memories of last year’s shortage.
However, CDC said, the flu vaccine is not expected to protect people from the viral strain seen in Asian poultry. There’s been no confirmed case of that strain in the United States.
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