CHICAGO, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Counties and municipalities across the United States are suspending flu clinics or not taking new reservations for shots amid fears shortages of vaccine may limit supplies to young children, seniors and chronically ill patients.
Lines formed outside Chicago-area clinics Friday morning as word spread that up to 50 percent of the expected vaccine -- enough for 46 million to 48 million doses nationally -- would not be available. There's enough vaccine for about 54 million shots instead of the expected 100 million.
Around 50 million people considered at-risk -- babies, the sick, infirm and elderly -- received flu shots last year.
The British government Wednesday suspended the manufacturing license of Chiron Corp., which makes vaccine for a U.S. company in Emeryville, Calif., when several batches of Fluvirin vaccine, enough for 4 million doses, produced at a facility in Liverpool were found to be contaminated by a bacteria usually found in hospitals.
The Chicago Department of Public Health typically receives 50,000 doses of flu vaccine. The city had planned to open 140 clinics to give free flu shots, but because of the shortage just 7,500 doses were available at 11 clinics.
Nurses said the clinics could run out of flu vaccine Friday afternoon.
"The flu vaccine should go first to people that have chronic illnesses such as lung disease and diabetes, to people over 65, to the children, to the infants 6 months to 2 years old, healthcare workers, people who have contact with people who are sick. Those are the people that have the first priority, and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant," said Dr. Mary Ann Malloy, medical consultant for WMAQ-TV. "They should have the first crack at this flu vaccine, which has been cut 50 percent."
The vaccine for infants and toddlers is made by Aventis Pasture, the only other vaccine manufacturer, and supplies are adequate.
The shortage for other people, however, means no flu shots at the majority of Minnesota's 405 nursing homes and long-term care facilities that bought vaccine from Chiron Corp., state health officials said. Elderly people living in closed-environment settings like nursing homes are more likely to be exposed to contagion.
Many seniors feel they have the right to get the vaccine because they may have compromised immune systems or suffer from chronic disease and could die if they get the flu.
People lined up early at grocery stores, pharmacies and made appointments with their doctor trying to get a shot.
Health officials are urging people not in the high-risk groups to hold off getting the flu shot or to skip the vaccination altogether this winter.
The Minnesota Department of Employee Relations canceled remaining state employee flu-shot clinics at work sites to provide more vaccine to high-risk people.
"If you don't check 'yes' for one of the risk categories -- that's an honest 'yes' -- I can't give you a shot," a nurse giving flu shots at a Costco store near Minneapolis repeated over and over, the Star-Tribune reported.
Los Angeles County, which needs about 130,000 doses, pleaded with 31,000 healthcare providers, drugstores and pharmacies to sell the county health department their flu vaccine.
Flu kills about 36,000 people in the United States and hospitalizes another 200,000 annually. This winter is expected to be a typical flu season -- no pandemic.
FluMist, a nasal flu vaccine, is an alternative for healthy 5- to 49-year-olds, and there is oral medicine that can limit the effects of the flu if taken within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms like high fever of at least 101 degrees, headache, dry cough, sore throat, congestion, runny or stopped up nose, muscle aches and fatigue.
MedImmune had about 2 million does of inhalable FluMist available.
Just two weeks ago the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that only 66 percent of seniors who should get flu shots actually would. Ninety percent of flu-related deaths and hospitalizations involve people 64 and older, federal health experts said.
"We agree that common sense by health care officials and the general public is the best medicine for getting through this shortage. Those people in the high-risk groups should not forgo a vaccination because they're worried the supply is too low. And those in low-risk groups should not panic because they cannot receive a vaccination," said the editorial page of the Daily Southtown, a suburban Chicago newspaper.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., sent U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson a letter urging support for legislation to prevent another shortage from occurring in the future. There was concern that having only two suppliers, each making tens of millions of doses over several months, left the United States too vulnerable to shortages.
"The CDC had every chance to get this right after last year's shortage and they failed on nearly all levels," said Bayh, sponsor of the Flu Protection Act in the Senate.
Emanuel, the sponsor of House legislation, said it's clear that reform is needed in the government's flu-vaccine program.
The Flu Protection Act would require the CDC to develop a contingency plan in case of shortages, offer incentives to encourage companies to produce flu vaccine, speed up production and demand greater cooperation and coordination between the government and vaccine manufacturers. The legislation would provide $100 million for research efforts.
"We have no appropriate excuse to offer Americans with children or older parents who find themselves waiting in line again for flu shots," the letter to Thompson said.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., called the flu-vaccine supply troubling. "We can manage this crisis, but it won't be easy. ... I am concerned about our level of preparedness for the future," Hastert said.
Getting a flu shot is no panacea. Flu spreads through droplets in the air like a cold.
Doctors say even in the best circumstances the vaccine is only about 80-percent effective in preventing flu but that the annual death toll could be cut in half if everyone received a shot before the cold-weather months.
For people who do get the flu, the best advice is to stay home and call their doctor, use tissues to cover the mouth when they cough or sneeze, discard used tissue and wash hands thoroughly to avoid spreading the disease.
Influenza may be a nuisance to the healthy but can be life-threatening in high-risk groups.
"Even though there seems to be a slight shortage of the flu vaccine, I encourage seniors to maintain their appointments and plans to get the shot," said Charles Johnson, director of the Illinois Department of Aging.
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