The nation suddenly finds itself faced with an acute flu vaccine shortage, with the flu vaccine supply suddenly being cut in half.
Yesterday, British regulatory officials unexpectedly froze all shipments from a major flu vaccine maker, effectively creating a huge shortage here. A major British flu vaccine maker’s shipment was frozen due to contaminated supplies.
As a result 48 million of the expected 102 million total doses of flu vaccine that the U.S. expected to have are now no longer available.
Federal officials are now telling the country to ration their flu vaccine. Now, it’s only those most at risk who are ones who should be getting the flu vaccine.
There is an inhaled flu vaccine, called Flumist, but ironically, this might be hard to find as well. Because of dismal sales last year, even during a flu shot shortage then, the company, Medimmune, cut Flumist production.
Still, if one can find it, he or she should get it, as long as there are no health reasons why you can’t.
“Nasal influenza vaccine is a little different in that it contains live but weakened influenza virus. It is a live virus flu vaccine and therefore is not recommended to people who are immuno-compromised, such as patients with AIDS. On the other hand the regular influenza vaccine is perfectly safe to give to people who are immuno-compromised,” says Dr. Steven Baum a flu expert at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.
The people who are now first in line for the flu vaccine are people older than 65, those with chronic medical conditions (such as heart disease, diabetes, or kidney disease), women who are pregnant, and people in nursing homes.
According to CDC officials, there is enough of the flu vaccine for these individuals, as Aventis-Pasteur, the Pennsylvania based producer, expects no problems with its shipments. And ironically, these at-risk populations are expected to be under-vaccinated, the main reason for the 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year due to the flu.
“Not enough people get immunized against influenza. In some estimates only 25% of all the people who ought to get the influenza vaccine actually get it,” says Dr. Baum.