Local flu vaccine supply may be delayed

Beth Slovic and Stephen Curran

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

The Clark County Health District, already bracing for the possibility of a nationwide pandemic outbreak of influenza this season, said this morning that it ordered all of its vaccine supply from a California company that on Thursday delayed shipments of the shots amid reports its supply may be tainted.

Jennifer Sizemore, a spokeswoman for the health district, said it was too early to predict how the delays would impact local flu clinics, but that local health clinics preparing to dispense the vaccine, originally slated to begin in mid-October, may not start on time.

The health district ordered 35,000 doses from Emeryville, Calif.-based Chiron Corp., which announced Thursday that a portion of that order was contaminated in a factory in Liverpool, England, delaying shipment of the vaccine until the company can determine how the batches became contaminated.

This year's order represented a 10,000-dose increase over last year's, Sizemore said.

But the delay could mean some residents who want the vaccine cannot get it, a representative of the CDC said.

The effort comes as the health district was already preparing for a possible flu pandemic this year. A large-scale drill is scheduled for Oct. 15. Sizemore said it was too early to predict if the drill will have to be canceled or postponed.

"We're still evaluating the situation and getting more information in," she said. "It may turn out everything is OK and we get it (the vaccination) in time. But it would be hard to give out flu shots if we don't have them."

No one can predict with any certainty when a flu pandemic may occur, but preparing for it is crucial if its spreading is to be contained, health officials said.

Pandemics, which experts say could kill 200,000 people, occur when a strain of influenza mutates and then infects a huge number of people who have not yet developed a resistance to it. About 36,000 people in the U.S. die of the flu every year.

The report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers guidelines to help health agencies plan for such outbreaks before they occur. Guidelines are offered on tracking the virus, developing and manufacturing vaccines, stockpiling doses and communicating with the public.

Even before the report's release, the Clark County Health District had been preparing for such an emergency, said Kay Godby, a preparedness planner for the local agency.

The plans include a health district effort to inoculate 2,500 residents against the flu in six to eight hours at the district's Ravenholt Public Health Center at 625 Shadow Lane on Oct. 15. It's a test run of local capabilities to help the district prepare for a possible pandemic, Godby said.

The October drill is to determine how fast the health agency can inoculate residents in an emergency. Inoculations are free to participants who volunteer for the drill. The health district wants to offer the flu shot for a small fee beginning Oct. 18.

Three flu pandemics have swept through the United States in the past 100 years, most recently in 1968, when nearly 34,000 people here died, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in its report.

The most deadly flu outbreak in recent history occurred in 1918, when about 675,000 people died in the United States alone. In 1957 another worldwide pandemic caused 70,000 deaths in the United States.

"What they're saying is we're due for another one," the health district's Godby said.

Based on the health district's research, Godby estimated the county would have to have 50 clinics up and running if a mutated flu virus began spreading. With those clinics, it could inoculate 125,000 residents a day with a vaccine manufactured to fight the mutated strain.

Long before the start of every flu season, health officials determine what strain is likely to infect humans. They then use that determination as a basis for what kind of vaccine to produce.

If the influenza virus mutates, health officials must scramble to create and distribute a new vaccine.

"By the time vaccines are made, there can be an outbreak of a strain they didn't know existed, or one mutates," said Larry Matheis, executive director of Nevada State Medical Association.

In the event of a pandemic, Matheis said, the federal Centers for Disease Control would send an advisory to the medical association. The association would then send the notice to doctors, and it would give guidelines for who has priority for the vaccine and where it is available.

Three Clark County residents died from influenza-related causes during the last flu season, said Patricia Rowley, an epidemiology manager with the county health district.

About 35 percent of the population that should be inoculated every year are, the health district's preparedness coordinator, Godby, said. Babies 6 months to 23 months old, anyone older than 50 and people with chronic illness should be vaccinated, Godby said.

The federal government also bumped up production of the latest vaccine this year because of a shortage last flu season, ordering 100 million doses, 17 million more than last year.