Two makers of shots say their 83-million doses of vaccine are gone and more can't be ready before the end of flu season.
By TOM ZUCCO
Published December 6, 2003
[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
Franca Sweaney, gets her flu shot Friday at Tropicana Field as Doug Yeates, 10, and Jessika Wethington, 11, watch.
ST. PETERSBURG - The cars stretched from the edge of the Tropicana Field parking lot to the main entrance Friday morning. Hundreds of people, concerned that this winter's flu season could be the worst in years, were getting drive-through vaccinations.
They had excellent timing.
Friday afternoon, two makers of flu shots announced they have run out of vaccine and will not be able to meet the late surge in demand. The companies, Chrion and Aventis Pasteur, made about 83-million doses of the injected vaccine, which ordinarily would be enough to take care of U.S. demand.
"Because of the recent outbreak, we've seen an unprecedented surge of vaccine orders late in the season," said Len Lavenda, an Aventis spokesman. "As a result, we have now shipped all our available supplies."
Florida is not suffering a vaccine shortage, state Health Secretary John Agwunobi said during a conference call with reporters Friday evening. And although flu activity has been early and harsh in some Western states this year, so far in Florida, it is about the same as the previous three or four years, he said. "It actually has been a little lower than expected," Agwunobi said. "But it's prudent that we prepare."
Agwunobi's office is conducting inventories of all county health departments and also trying to gauge how much vaccine is available in the private sector. The vast majority of vaccinations, Agwunobi said, are given through private physicians, hospitals and chain drugstores.
"Those who need to get vaccinated will get vaccinated," Agwunobi said, but he said that those most vulnerable, including children, the elderly and the chronically ill, should get vaccine first.
Agwunobi said there were about 300 flu cases reported statewide last week, with no deaths since the flu season began.
"But we are early - just the ninth week."
The vaccine makers said they cannot make more vaccine this year because the process takes four months. By that time, the flu season would be over.
Health officials in Pinellas County said they have enough vaccine for the immediate future. "Right now, we're not worried too much," said Diana Jordan, a registered nurse who oversees communicable disease surveillance for the county health department. "But I suspect there will be an increased demand."
In Hillsborough, the supply is stretched a bit thinner.
"We have some, but not an unlimited supply," said Cindy Hardy, immunization program manager for the Hillsborough County Health Department. "Right now, some of our locations don't have any vaccine, so we're directing people to the sites where it is.
"We've already doubled the amount we usually give, and it's only early December.
"It's just a shame that people waited so long this year," Hardy said. "If they got their shots on a regular basis in October or November, we wouldn't be in the panic we're in now."
The CDC said it is not unusual for supplies to run short this time of year when health care providers usually stop giving vaccinations. A big shortage in November of 2000 happened because of problems in making the vaccine that year.
This year, the scramble for flu shots began in earnest last month, when researchers said they expected a higher flu death toll than usual this winter. In a typical year, 36,000 Americans die and more than 114,000 are hospitalized because of the influenza virus.
But the flu season usually stretches from October to May, peaking in December and January. And this year, cases were reported in some Western states as early as September. The flu has been blamed for the deaths of at least six children in Colorado, three in Texas and one each in Oklahoma and New Mexico.
Dr. Tim Uyeki, medical epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the number of children getting seriously ill and dying worries the agency. Typically, he said, "there may be a lot of illness among children, but deaths usually occur among elderly people."
The flu is an infection of the respiratory tract caused by the influenza virus. It is typically characterized by headache, fever, a severe cough, sore throat, muscle aches, runny or stuffy nose, and often, extreme fatigue.
Health experts suggest receiving the vaccination by early December because it takes up to two weeks before the vaccination becomes effective.
Most of the outbreak this fall has been a strain called A-Fujian-H3N2, which was not selected for this year's flu vaccine, according to the CDC. Experts say the strain is closely related to the strain the vaccine targets, A-Panama-H3N2.
"The strain changes every year, so it's very intelligent guesswork by the CDC as to which strain is going to hit," said Linda Hoffmeister, infection control nurse for St. Anthony's Hospital.
Health experts say the vast majority of the millions of Americans who get the flu will recover.
But they also stress that the Tampa Bay area is more vulnerable than other parts of the country because of the area's large number of elderly people and because it is a prime tourist destination.
Health care providers from St. Anthony's, Morton Plant and other area hospitals in the BayCare Health System began giving the $15 flu vaccinations at Tropicana Field at 7:30 a.m. Friday. By the noon cutoff time, they had administered more than 400 shots. And people were still pulling in line.
"This is way more than we've ever had before," said Barbara Baker, a program coordinator at St. Anthony's. "Most people say they heard it's going to be a rough year."
On Thursday alone, Doctor's Walk-In Clinic administered 408 shots at its eight Hillsborough and north Pinellas locations.
"That's at least 30 percent more shots than we give this time of year," said Barbara Chronik, the clinic's operations manager. "We think we have a pretty good supply of vaccine for the weekend. Just this week we ordered 1,000 more doses."
Back at Tropicana Field, Steve and Jessica O'Brien of St. Petersburg took time off work to sit in their red Nissan 300 ZX and wait for their shots. They, too, had heard the flu season was going to be bad.
"We'll probably get sick before we get the shots," Steve O'Brien, 33, said with a smirk. "We've been waiting almost an hour and a half. But I've been hospitalized from the flu before, and I'm not going through that again."
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Some questions and answers about flu
Q: Will I be able to get a flu shot?
A: That depends on demand. There have been shortages in some hard-hit areas. The largest vaccine makers have distributed all the vaccine they produced - 83-million doses - and they can't make any more quickly.
Q: Who needs the flu shot most?
A: People 50 and older, infants and toddlers, people with asthma, diabetes, chronic heart or lung disease and weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV; and women who will be more than three months pregnant during the flu season.
Q: Several children have died from the flu. Are they considered more at risk for this year's flu strain?
A: Disease experts are concerned that so many children seem to be affected, but they say they have too little information to consider them at greater risk for the flu.
Q: Because there may not be enough flu shots to go around, what should I do if I'm healthy?
A: Disease doctors are recommending the new FluMist nasal spray; it's more expensive, but there are ample supplies of it for use by healthy people ages 5-49.
Q: Can I get the flu even though I got a flu shot this year?
A: Yes, but it can make the symptoms milder and prevent deadly complications. Typically, the flu shot protects between 70 and 90 percent of healthy people. The elderly are more susceptible.
The power of the flu shot also depends on how well it matches the flu virus in circulation. The current Fujian flu strain affecting most people is not the strain in this year's flu shot. But disease experts say it is a close enough match that considerable protection should be provided.
- Sources: AP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.