Demand depletes Valley doses of flu vaccine

Published online on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

Valley doctors have nearly run out of vaccine for both swine and seasonal flu -- and worry that further shipments won't come close to meeting demand as anxious families line up for shots.

Fighting the H1N1 strain is their first priority. The virus has hit the central San Joaquin Valley hard, spreading well before the traditional flu season. It has killed at least 21 people in the Valley and 249 statewide so far.

But shots for the regular seasonal flu also are a concern. Every year, the flu kills about 4,000 people in the state, and demand for vaccination is especially high because of the H1N1 pandemic.

If the pace of H1N1 cases continues, "it will be the worst flu season that I've ever seen in my two decades of practice," said Dr. David Pugatch of Children's Hospital Central California.

Skimpy first shipments of swine-flu vaccine that came earlier this month are mostly gone. Counties expect to get more soon -- but no one knows exactly when.

And health officials have almost exhausted supplies of seasonal-flu vaccine as unexpectedly large numbers of people show up at flu-shot clinics.

On Thursday, Fresno County said it is out of seasonal-flu vaccine with the exception of some doses of Flu Mist for healthy people ages 2 to 49 and shots for children ages 6 months to 3 years.

Turnout at the county's seasonal flu-shot clinics has been unprecedented, health officials said.

People came for shots who "haven't had a vaccination for years or are getting the vaccine for the first time in their life," said David Luchini, manager of the communicable disease division at Fresno County Department of Public Health.

Tulare County no longer is holding mass seasonal-flu vaccinations due to a lack of supply.

And in Kings County, doses of seasonal-flu vaccine are almost gone, said Dr. Michael MacLean, health officer. And he doesn't expect to get more. "I don't think there's any more available from the manufacturers," he said. "My understanding is the seasonal-flu vaccine is gone."

Kaiser Permanente doctors in Fresno have vaccinated more than 31,000 members for seasonal flu -- and still has vaccine remaining. The health system expects soon to surpass the 33,000 shots given last year.

But vaccine supplies are short at private doctors' offices in the Valley. Shipments have been delayed and are small when they arrive, office managers say.

"We're all shorted and the public is not happy, believe me," said Walene Herzog, office manager at the Community Medical Providers site in north Fresno.

Big-chain drug stores advise people to check availability of vaccine before showing up for shots.

Walgreens, after giving 5 million seasonal-flu shots nationwide this fall, is winding down its shot program, said spokesman Jim Cohn.

"I don't think we expected to go through the 5 million shots at the rate we did," Cohn said. Last year, the company gave about 1 million flu shots.

The state ordered 670,000 doses of seasonal-flu vaccine for counties and has received about 75% of that allotment, said Ralph Montano, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health. The drug maker, Sonofi Pasteur, has said the remainder should be shipped in November, he said.

Madera County has been told vaccine manufacturers are concentrating on producing H1N1 vaccine, which is the priority as cases of the novel flu strain continue to increase.

"We're in the middle of a pandemic," said Dr. Edward Moreno, health officer for Fresno County, where about 198 people have been hospitalized with H1N1 -- or swine flu -- and 12 have died. The most recent victim was a 29-year-old woman who died Oct. 25.