Centers for Disease Control officials announced last week the supply of influenza vaccine will be cut in half this 2004-05 flu season due to contamination in a British plant, inducing a shortage of the medicine to many low-risk individuals.
“This is a big deal because influenza can be a serious disease, often meaning a week of being in bed,” Craig Roberts, University Health Services epidemiologist, said in an e-mail. “The public health implications of this shortage are immense — many more people [50 million, to be exact] will be at risk of developing influenza this year.”
The CDC, along with state and local public health departments, has responded to the announcement rapidly and identified eight priority groups for the vaccine on the CDC website. These priority groups include all children aged six to 23 months old, adults 65 years and older, individuals with underlying chronic medical conditions, among others.
UHS executive director and nurse Kathleen Poi stressed the importance of realizing these high-risk groups are not composed of people at high risk of getting influenza, but include those at high-risk for having serious and possibly fatal complications if they do get the virus.
“I [want to] emphasize that [our lack of doses] is not an absolute emergency — we have no influenza in the community yet, this is just the normal time that [health providers] give out the vaccine,” Poi said. “This is about one month before you see [influenza] in the community.”
Some health providers ordered all of their supply from Chiron, and so do not have any vaccines available, Poi said.
“In the Madison area, we’re all collaborating and using the same [CDC guidelines] so that everyone has something to give.”
According to Poi, the vaccine shortage is affecting the University of Wisconsin campus the same way it is affecting Madison and the entire country. UHS currently does not have any flu vaccine on hand.
“We obtain our vaccine from UW Hospital Pharmacy and they are holding all vaccines until a community redistribution plan is put into effect,” Roberts said. “We estimate that only about 1,500 [to] 2,000 UW-Madison students will meet [the high-risk] criteria and be eligible to get flu shots from UHS.”
Roberts said UW students with chronic medical conditions and asthma will be the primary group to get flu shots. Otherwise healthy college students are urged to forego receiving their flu shot for now, and most likely for this year.
Health care providers normally urge individuals to get their annual flu vaccine, but this year is different due to the immense shortage, according to Wisconsin Division of Public Health state epidemiologist Dr. Jeffrey Davis.
“We are asking people for the first time, if you are not high risk, please forego your influenza vaccine,” Davis said. “This is a very significant shortage [of the influenza vaccine], and we’ll have to work with what we have.”
The CDC also urges individuals who are in the priority groups to first seek local vaccine availability if their regular health care provider does not have any vaccine accessible. Also, children under 9 usually require two doses of the influenza vaccine to increase immunity, but parents must realize that the second dose will not be held in reserve and will instead be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Poi stressed all individuals should consider the general public health practices of washing hands, covering mouths when sneezing, and staying home from work or class if ill.
“We all hope for a year [with] not much influenza — but we have no idea what we will see,” Poi said.
