Flu Vaccine Shortage Is Now a Surplus

States starting to lift restrictions on who can get a shot

MONDAY, Jan. 17 , 2005 (HealthDayNews) -- The flu vaccine shortage, which caused people to panic just a few short months ago, has turned into a glut.

Almost 20 states now have flu vaccine to spare, and many have lifted some or all of the restrictions on who can get a shot. They cover all corners of the country, from California to Massachusetts to Florida to Indiana, according to published reports.

Bonnie Hebert, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there are about 400,000 adult doses and 500,000 children's doses that could be requested by the states. Another 2.6 million doses from Aventis could go out within the next couple of weeks, she added.

It seems hard to believe that people were wrapped around the block at flu vaccine clinics last October, but a confluence of factors appears to have produced this unlikely scenario.

One might simply be timing.

"We have this big vaccine push every fall and people get into it, and there was a lot of demand at the time," said Dr. Jonathan McCullers, an assistant member of infectious diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. "After a while, that starts to wear off and everyone who wanted to get it [a shot] got it, and those who kind of wanted to get it forgot about it."

Add to that the fact that this year's flu season has had a slow start.

"The influenza season has, so far, been a mild one," said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, chairman of preventive medicine and community health at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City. "It has not reached levels that it did in the past few years and, as a consequence, people generally don't hear of other people they know of having the flu and that has a negative impact on people's desire to get immunized."

But while demand seems to have dried up, the supply of vaccine is still flowing.

"The vaccine is continuously being made and continuously being delivered even as late as the end of December and beginning of January," McCullers said. "If the demand has gone away and you are still getting supply, there is going to be a mismatch."

This season's flu vaccine shortage first came to light in early October, when federal health officials announced that the nation's anticipated supply of 105 million doses had been slashed by nearly half after British health officials closed down the plant of a key manufacturer because they detected bacterial contamination in some lots of the vaccine.

Through a variety of measures, the federal government has been able to scrape together about 65 million doses, including an inhaled version of the vaccine.

Initially, the CDC reacted by restricting flu shots to adults aged 65 and over, children under the age of 2, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions.

But, starting Jan. 3, the CDC expanded its high-priority recommendations to include adults aged 50 and over, as well as people in contact with high-risk individuals. Many states followed suit, with some states, such as California, lifting all restrictions on who could get vaccinated.

There is some speculation that the CDC will soon lift all restrictions. "I anticipate that, in the near future, they will relax the requirements," McCullers said.

But Hebert refuted that notion. "At this point in time, CDC has no plans to further relax the restrictions," she said.

Because the flu season is so unpredictable and could still charge forward, experts are recommending that people on the high-priority list get vaccinated, McCullers stressed.

"Absolutely, now is the time to go get your shot," McCullers said. "If we had had an early flu season, this would be too late. Since we haven't, this is probably the ideal time to get the shot because you will have more recent immunity. Immunity does wane over the course of a season, so now is the better time."

And, in many places, there is plenty of supply:

  • According to the Fresno Bee newspaper, California has about 700,000 doses of vaccine available for distribution statewide.
  • The six New England states may have more than 300,000 doses of flu vaccine, the Boston Globe reported.
  • The South Bend Tribune reported 64,000 doses of vaccine, including 18,000 doses of preservative-free vaccine for children, available for distribution to local clinics in Indiana.
  • Citing a surplus of 100,000 doses, North Carolina health officials are preparing to lift all vaccine restrictions on Jan. 24, the Southern Pines Pilot reported.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has comprehensive information on the flu.

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