US H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Supply On Track To Hit 10 Million Increase Says CDC Director

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Main Category: Swine Flu
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Article Date: 04 Nov 2009 - 3:00 PST

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H1N1 pandemic swine flu vaccine supplies are "on track to hit the 10 million increase" according to the Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a telephone conference on Tuesday, CDC Director Tom Frieden told the press that:

"As of today there are 31.8 million doses of flu vaccine available."

He said the US was now on track to hit the anticipated and hoped for 10 million increase for the current week.

"We'll update you Friday as to whether the 10 million mark was met and where it has been shipped," he promised.

Frieden explained that this was not nearly as much as they would have liked, and acknowledged that the shortfall was "disruptive" for people who are trying but can't get hold of the vaccine, and that this was not only frustrating for patients and doctors but it is also bad for public health since a person who tries and fails to get vaccine now is unlikely to try again later.

"We ask people to continue to be persistent," urged Frieden.

Frieden said different states are setting different priorities about who gets vaccinated first, and some states are sub-prioritizing.

"But because there are different vaccine forms with the live continuing vaccine only for healthy people ages 2 to 49, the live vaccine, the nasal spray is primarily used for health care workers and healthy children," explained Frieden.

In answer to a question about the importance of storing the vaccine at the right temperature, Frieden said there have been a few examples of improper handling that have led to vaccines being discarded, but with "30 million doses out there" this kind of thing was inevitable, and they were "glad it's been relatively rare".

The question arose because of a report from Pennsylvania that 6,000 flu shots had to be disregarded because they were stored at the wrong temperature in a school refrigerator.

The CDC is also seeing unprecedented demand for seasonal flu vaccine, and they hear that people are also experiencing difficulty getting hold of that. Unlike the swine flu vaccine, only 10 per cent of seasonal flu vaccine is purchased by the government; most of it is handled by the market.

Frieden reminded people that antivirals are effective at reducing the severity of flu:

"If you're having trouble breathing, if you got better and then got worse again, or if you have an underlying condition such as asthma, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, then seek care promptly," he urged, explaining that antivirals do make a difference and reduce the likelihood of becoming severely ill or hospitalized.

Frieden reminded everyone to protect themselves and others by washing their hands frequently, and covering their mouths when they sneezed and coughed.

"Flu season lasts until May. We don't know what will happen," said Frieden.

As a result of a recent telephone survey, the CDC estimates that about half the people with asthma have not been seeking care when they fall ill with flu-like illness. Although most of them were able to answer the phone when followed up weeks later, so in that regard the CDC assumes "nothing terrible happened", Frieden said that:

"We would like more people to seek care if they have an underlying condition with flu-like illness."

Frieden confirmed that the CDC is continuing to see high rates of hospitalizations in places where there's more flu, and that children and young adults under the age of 15 account for most of them.

In answer to a question, Frieden explained that people who were obese, ie with a BMI of 40 or higher, were also at higher risk of flu complication, and this could be because people with a high BMI also tend to have underlying health issues like diabetes or heart disease. For overweight people in the BMI range 30 to 40 the data is "more mixed" he said, and it was not clear whether they were at higher risk of complications from swine flu.

Frieden said they did not yet have enough information to report how the H1N1 swine flu was affecting healthcare workers, and whether they were catching it at home or in the workplace, and if in the workplace whether they were getting it from patients or colleagues.

He did say however that there was a higher than usual uptake this year of flu vaccination among healthcare workers.

Source: CDC.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today