Flu shots given to local TV station workers were legitimate, director says

Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

KLAS-TV Channel 8 employees breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after verifying the flu vaccine they received this year was legitimate vaccine from a licensed medical doctor, News Director Bob Stoldal said.

Employees had been concerned after they had been told that Shahid Sheikh, the man they had gone through to set up their flu shot clinic, was being investigated for administering flu shots and attaining flu vaccine without a license in Seattle.

Health officials in Nevada are looking into claims that he did the same in the Las Vegas Valley, as first reported by the Sun.

"I got a flu shot and I feel fine," Stoldal said Thursday.

It is unknown if Sheikh set up any other flu clinics or administered vaccinations for other companies while president of the Henderson nonprofit Med Sources Inc., which advertised itself as providing medical training and preventive health care for low-income people. It is also unknown if he physically administered any flu shots in Nevada.

Sheikh, who first contacted Channel 8 in 2002 with an offer to provide workers with flu shots, never personally administered shots to any Channel 8 employee, Stoldal said.

When Sheikh, then president of the nonprofit, set up the company's flu shot clinic in fall 2002, a registered nurse administered the shots, Stoldal said.

This year Sheikh contacted Channel 8 Human Resources Director Andy Henderson and gave him the name of Dr. Mahmud Sheikh, a local internist, to provide the company flu shots because he had moved to Seattle. Mahmud Sheikh did not return pages seeking comment. Stoldal said the two are not related.

State health officials said Thursday Shahid Sheikh was under investigation in Nevada, but Pam Gebica, head of investigations for the State Board of Medical Examiners, said any investigation on their part would be confidential. However, she said because Sheikh is not licensed as a doctor or physicians assistant, he does not fall within their jurisdiction.

Officials with Henderson and Metro police said no one is investigating Sheikh in their departments and that they have received no complaints against him.

The state Attorney General's office would only take the case if the Board of Medical Examiners did an investigation and found enough evidence to pursue criminal charges, spokesman Tom Sargent said.

Only doctors, physicians assistants, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and pharmacists can administer a vaccination. Shahid Sheikh does not hold any of those licenses in this state. It is unclear if Sheikh actually administered flu shots in Nevada or if he only served as the middleman for a company that organized flu shot clinics.

The Washington state Attorney General's office has a complaint on file from a Bellevue, Wash., woman who received an unsolicited fax from Shahid Sheikh's Henderson Med Sources office Dec. 20, 2002. The woman who made the complaint, Evelyn Zeller, said the fax advertised flu shots when she was reached by phone in her Bellevue office.

Zeller, an attorney, said she complained about the fax to the Attorney General's office because unsolicited faxes are illegal, waste her fax paper and are annoying.

"I was really angry about this one because it woke us up in the middle of the night," Zeller said.

Zeller, who kept the three-page fax, read it over the phone to a Sun reporter. It says "the council of physicians for public health and safety has recommended we vaccinate your area for a possible flu epidemic."

The fax then asks if the receiver is allergic to eggs, pregnant or has already had a flu shot.

The fax then says that the sender "bears no responsibility for the shot," and that the receiver of the vaccines must "agree to hold shot administrator and Med Sources free from liability."

The top of the fax asks, "What about smallpox?"

The Washington attorney general's office also had a second complaint against the Bellevue, Wash., Med Sources office for improper billing. No charges were filed in either case, spokeswoman Lori Takahashi said.

The Washington State Department of Health and Seattle police are investigating allegations that Sheikh administered flu shots without a license from his Med Sources office in Bellevue, said Don Moyer, spokesman for the Washington health department. The investigation is still under way.

KING-TV Channel 5 News in Seattle looked into allegations against Sheikh and found Sheikh had administered the flu shots for the station as well.

Sheikh is a registered counselor in Washington but is not certified to give any type of injection, Moyer said.

No one was answering the phone Thursday for Med Sources, Inc. national toll-free number, nor did anyone answer the Henderson phone numbers for the company. The former location, 375 N. Stephanie St., Building 7, is now occupied by another business. No one at the office complex knew of Med Sources. The company was registered as a business in 2002, according to the secretary of state's listings. He company's license has not been renewed.

The Washington attorney general's office also has 14 prior complaints against the American College of Professional Education in Issaquah, Wash., which Sheikh ran, Takahashi said.

All of the complaints involve failures to return refunds, failure to deliver services or misrepresentation of services, he said.

"The bottom line is that these people weren't getting what they were paying for," Takahashi said.