By Ruth Olson
Flu shots will be in short supply in the U.S. following a decision by British health officials to pull the license of a major vaccine producer.
The company, the British-based Chiron Corp., had been planning to send between 46 and 48 million doses of the vaccine to the United States. Now the company has announced it will not supply any vaccines this year.
Rebecca Ward, education outreach coordinator for the Utah Immunization Program, said state officials are still working to assess the size of the problem in Utah. She said she did not know yet how bad the problem was, but it would affect all areas of the state. She said state health officials did not yet know if there would be enough vaccines for Utah”s high-risk groups, but they were hopeful.
“Our main concern is helping the high-risk in Utah at this point,” Ward said.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control is recommending that only high-risk people receive the vaccination. Risk groups include children from six to 23 months, people 65 and older, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases and caregivers of at-risk groups.
Lynn Flinders, nursing director for the Utah County Health Department, said because of the limited supplies of the vaccine, the department would be setting priorities on who would be vaccinated.
She said the Health Center”s efforts would focus on educating the public and letting them know which groups have priority to receive the vaccine. After that, it would be up to them to decide if they needed it.
“We”ll encourage them not to get it, and they”ll have to tell us if they feel like they”re at risk or not,” Flinders said.
Flinders said the department is already offering vaccinations, and the shortage will not create a delay.
“We”re just asking the public to help us have the people with the priorities receive the vaccine,” Flinders said.
Janet Frank, spokesperson for the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, said despite the vaccine shortages, increased flu hospitalizations are not likely. She said the people most likely to need hospitalization for the disease are the people the Center for Disease Control has indicated have priority to receive vaccinations.
“They still will be able to get the flu shots to the people who are in most need,” Frank said. “If that can actually happen, I don”t think we”ll have a lot higher than what we”re expecting.”
Since the Intermountain Health Care organization did not order their supply of the vaccine from Chiron Corp., Frank said they have already received most of their shipments of the vaccine. However, she said there was a possibility that the region would be asked to share some of their supply.
“If the state asks us to make some of ours available, we”ll always try to do what we can to work with the state organizations,” Frank said.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency temporarily suspended Chiron Corp.”s license because the agency judged that the company was not in compliance with UK Good Manufacturing Practices regulations, according to a Chiron news release. Chiron announced in August this year that there could be delays in the production of the vaccine, but it was only Tuesday the company announced there would be none at all.
Frank said the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center is currently complying with Center for Disease Control instructions to vaccinate only employees who work with patient care rather than their regular policy of vaccinating all employees.
Ward said this is not the first time Utah has had to deal with flu vaccine shortages. She said the shortages in 2000 helped prepare the state for the current problem.
“It”s not something we don”t think we can handle,” Ward said.
