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October 12, 2004
US Flu Vaccine Shortage Threatens PWA's Lives
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene scrambled last week to make contingency plans and assess the potential impact of a severe flu vaccine shortage announced by federal officials. City health commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned" about the shortage and that his office would recommend giving priority to senior citizens "and other high-risk groups."
If you are in a high-risk group and your clinic has no vaccine, call the New York City Department of Health's Bureau of Immunization at 212-676-2259, or send email to NYCflu@health.nyc.gov.
Shockingly, problems with one manufacturer, Chiron, mean almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not arrive this season. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses of vaccine for the United States, but contamination led the British government to close the company's Liverpool plant, effectively canceling half the U.S. supply. The rest mostly comes from one French company, Aventis Pasteur.
Frieden said, "The full implications of this announcement are being determined, as we do not yet know the extent to which area physicians and hospitals, which order their own vaccine, depend on Chiron vaccine supplies."
As health commissioner of the largest City in the country, and arguably the most vulnerable population, Dr. Frieden and his boss Mayor Bloomberg need to hold U.S. health officials accountable for being delinquent in not creating a more extensive supply network for flu vaccine.
Even in a year with sufficient vaccines, flu kills 36,000 mostly elderly people in this country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Due to the vaccine shortage, the CDC is changing its guidance about who should get vaccinated this season. Federal and state officials are issuing advisories to ensure that the limited supplies of flu shots get to the people who most need them, those with weakened immune systems including persons with HIV/AIDS, the elderly, the sick, pregnant women, children up to 23 months of age, and healthcare workers who care for high-risk groups. Officials are asking healthy people age 2 to 64 to not get a vaccination this year or to wait until priority groups in their area have had a chance to be vaccinated, so that available vaccine is sure to get to those at greater risk.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the CDC, acknowledges the government has failed in not bolstering the supply system for vaccines. Calling the current system "very fragile," Gerberding told reporters, "We really need a long-term solution so we don't end up in this year-to-year situation where we don't have a reliable supply."
One reason the system is so weak is that vaccine production is nowhere near as profitable as prescription medications for the greedy drug companies. The federal government could encourage adequate production levels by paying for excess flu shots at the end of a season.
And it could guarantee vaccine contracts go to enough companies that the shutdown of one doesn't leave the nation unprotected, as it is now. An Institute of Medicine report in 2003 noted that there were almost 30 U.S. vaccine makers in 1967 and just five in 2003. The report recommended that the government require insurers to pay for all vaccinations. Congress last year appropriated just half of the $100 million requested to address these issues.
These chronic flu vaccine problems inspire no confidence that the federal government will be able to handle a major outbreak of a bird flu that develops the ability to pass easily from one human being to another. Such a flu killed millions worldwide from 1918-1920. A capacity to create a new vaccine quickly and get it into mass production is crucial in protecting against a recurrence of a flu pandemic. Imagine a massive flu outbreak ravaging entire communities that are already disproportionately impacted by HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis.