No shortage predicted for flu vaccine: CDC
No shortage predicted for flu vaccine: CDC
At least 71 million doses available
Hospitals will likely avoid a shortage of flu vaccine this year, even if the shipments arrive in a staged fashion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported.
The CDC had recommended vaccinating only the top priority groups (such as elderly or chronically ill patients and health care workers with direct patient contact) until Oct. 24. Some hospitals reported they received only partial shipments of vaccine in October, but the CDC anticipated at least 71 million doses would be available this year, an increase of 10 million doses over last year's supply, says CDC spokesman Curtis Allen.
"We realize in an ideal situation everyone would have their vaccine as early as possible, but [the vaccine] is in the pipeline," says Allen.
Sanofi Pasteur will provide about 60 million doses, GlaxoSmithKline plc will have about 8 million doses, and another 3 million doses of the live attenuated vaccine FluMist will be available from MedImmune Inc., Allen says. Chiron Corp. also will provide some vaccine, but it was not clear how much, he says.
"We hope to approach about the historic amount of vaccine we've had in years past," says Allen, who notes that in 2003 83.1 million doses were available.
Meanwhile, if a severe shortage of influenza vaccine occurs in the future, the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) has outlined a sub-tiering system that could be used to identify the highest priority health care workers.
Tier 1A would comprise health care workers "in close (within 3 feet) and repeated contact with high-risk patients in high-risk units." That would include intensive care, the emergency department, transplant units, and obstetrics. Tier 1B would comprise "all health care workers working in close but not prolonged or repeated contact with high-risk patients in high-risk units." Tier 1C would comprise health care workers working in high patient traffic units and health care workers who perform "essential patient care functions."
HCWs with patient care duties in non-high-risk areas would be in Tier 2 and all other health care workers would be in Tier 3, SHEA advises.
In a shortage situation, sub-tiering would allow hospitals to obtain "the maximum effect of available vaccine," says Thomas Talbot, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville and chairman of SHEA's Healthcare Worker Influenza Task Force.
Hospitals will likely avoid a shortage of flu vaccine this year, even if the shipments arrive in a staged fashion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported.Subscribe Now for Access
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