Southern Nevada expects critical flu vaccine shortage

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 10:33 a.m.

With Southern Nevada emergency rooms already experiencing massive overcrowding, a looming flu vaccine shortage has emergency medicine practitioners thinking their situation could quickly go from bad to worse.

"I'm concerned, but we have to wait and see," Dr. Dale Carrison, director of University Medical Center's emergency room, said. "The concern is that we get a bad flu year, and then with the vaccine shortage we can only inoculate about 50 percent of the people who got shots last year."

Getting half as many people inoculated is the best that the Clark County Health District can hope for at this point, with just 20,000 flu vaccine doses set to arrive in Las Vegas by late October, compared with the 40,000 doses that were used last year, district spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.

"We know it's going to be late in getting here, so we have moved back the first day of shots to Nov. 6," Sizemore said. "Those most at risk of suffering complications and becoming seriously ill because of the flu will be given the vaccine first."

Those most at risk include senior citizens and anyone who has a doctor's prescription for the shot, Sizemore said.

As many as 20,000 people die every year because of flu-related complications, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an epidemic year, that number can more than double to about 50,000 deaths.

The shortage is caused by a twofold problem involving the four companies licensed to manufacture and distribute the vaccine in the United States. First, two of the manufacturers have reported that they have had trouble growing one of the three influenza virus strains in this year's vaccine. Second, the other two companies have been having manufacturing problems that have led to fewer available vaccine dosages, disease control officials said.

"What they try to do is predict what major flu strains are going to hit the United States in a given year, and then build a vaccine to combat it," Carrison said. "They usually know what strains are prominent in the world, but it can also be kind of a crap shoot.

"Last year we had a vaccine that happened to match the flu that hit here, so we didn't have that bad of a year. We could get a flu that isn't planned for, and then the amount of vaccine doesn't make much of a difference."

Even with Clark County scheduled to receive about half of its usual vaccine doses, there should still be enough to inoculate those who need it the most, Sizemore said.

"Normally, when the flu hits people who are otherwise healthy, it's not really a problem," Sizemore said. "It's uncomfortable, but if they are healthy, they can usually get over it in a couple of days. We're recommending that people be careful and make sure they wash their hands. If you get sick, you should stay away from others and get plenty of rest and fluids."

Other Western states are feeling the shortage just as much or more than Nevada. In Los Angeles, the administering of shots has also been moved back to November, and in Alaska the state's immunology program has not received any of the 85,000 doses that were ordered.