Flu Vaccine Shortage Leads to Concern

Concerns are growing that there will be a shortage in the availabilty of Influenza (flu) vaccine in the United States, just as the ’flu’ season is due to start.

The shortage was created after it was discovered that doses of the Influenza vaccine ’Fluvirin’ were found to be contaminated at a manfacturing plant in Liverpool, England. Chiron, the vaccine’s manufacturer were subsequently barred on October 5 2004, by the UK Department of Health from providing vaccine for 3 months.

The decision came less than two months after Chiron, who are the world’s second-largest maker of flu vaccine, said it would discard the 4 million doses found to be contaminated with the bacteria, serratia, which can cause blood poisoning and infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts.

In the United Kingdom six different Flu vaccines are used. Of the 14 million doses of the vaccine ordered for this winter, only 2.4 million were to be supplied by Chiron and as such contingency plans to make up the shortfall have been put into place. However, the UK Department of Health admitted some people might experience a delay in getting their regular inoculation.

It is not expected that Europe will feel much of an impact as only 20% of the Flurovin vaccine produced is sold to Europe, the majority of which is not produced at the Liverpool plant.

The impact however will be most acutely felt in the United States where Fluvirin is one of only two vaccines used, 48 million doses of the vaccine produced in Liverpool were destined for the United States, accounting for half the countries annual supply. This has prompted United States government officials to ask healthy Americans to postpone their shots to conserve supplies for the more vulnerable.

Influenza effects millions each year, but the real concern is with people aged 65 years and older, people of any age with chronic medical conditions, and very young children as these groups are more likely to get complications from influenza, sometimes fatal.

The US government has sought to make up for the loss of half the nation’s flu vaccine supply by providing 2 million doses of a nasal spray vaccine and enough antiviral drugs to treat approximately 40 million people. In addition 2.6 million doses are to be supplied by an alternative vaccine producer, Aventis, however, these doses won’t be available until January. Even once administered it takes 7-10 days for the vaccine to become effective, a real cause for concern as the 2003 flu season in the United States started in late October and finished in March, peaking in December.

Flu vaccine takes about six months to produce, relying on decades-old technology in which vaccine is grown in millions of chicken eggs. So vaccine makers need that much lead time to know how much to produce.

More details on Influenza and its surveillance can be found in a factsheet produced by the European Commission.

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