Flu vaccines expected to trickle in soon

But will there be enough to go around? And will it arrive in time to stave off the looming season of sickness? Officials' opinions differ.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 2000

Where are our flu shots?

The flu vaccine usually arrives in the Tampa Bay area in September. This year, manufacturing problems delayed delivery until late October. Then that got pushed back to mid November.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. The peak of flu season is looming. And still it's hard to find a flu shot.

Don't worry, some health officials are saying; the shots should be here within the next couple of weeks.

"We're down to the wire now, but there will be plenty of vaccine available for everyone who needs it," said Mildred Vitale, a flu nurse with the Pinellas County Health Department. "It's just a matter of it getting to us."

Other officials, however, aren't making any promises.

"Our vaccine is trickling in very slowly and very late," said Sandy Jones, community health manager for Bayfront-St. Anthony's Health Care. "We don't really know yet whether there's going to be a shortage."

At least 80-million Americans received a flu shot last year. Many companies provide them free to employees. For others, health insurance often covers much of the cost.

This year's supply of flu vaccine was delayed because manufacturers had trouble growing one of the strains of influenza virus that make up this season's vaccine. That left many doctor's offices, clinics, nursing homes and health departments high and dry.

Their wait might soon be over. Two major vaccine manufacturers and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say vaccine orders should be filled by early to mid December.

The question is, will that be too late to help?

Flu season typically peaks between January and March. Last year, flu cases nationwide started climbing fast in mid December and peaked between Christmas and Jan. 15, although Florida tends to peak later than colder northern states.

Officials used to say it takes a month after the shot for humans to build up immunity to the flu. But now they say it takes just a week or two.

"After about two weeks, you should build up a good immunity," said Vitale, the Pinellas Health Department nurse. The agency is getting a lot of worried callers because it usually immunizes 6,000 to 7,000 people at its five centers throughout Pinellas County.

"People are so used to getting it at a certain time. They kind of schedule themselves for it," Vitale said.

One health care company has been immunizing people for $12 a shot at area grocery stores. But scores of other local flu shot programs are being postponed.

Bayfront-St. Anthony's Health Care, which typically immunizes hundreds of corporate employees and Pinellas schoolteachers, has been restricting its small supply of flu vaccine to homebound elderly and sick people.

The CDC recommends that the vaccine go first to people who need it most: people 65 and older or children and adults with chronic health problems, including asthma. They are most likely to develop complications from the flu.

Flu kills about 20,000 Americans each year and puts 110,000 in the hospital.

"We've got to take care of the highest-risk folks first," said Dr. Landis Crockett, director of disease control for the Florida Department of Health. "The people who are at lesser risk need to get out of the line. We expect that to change in the foreseeable future, and then they can get back in line."

Humana Inc., which distributes vaccine to doctors for its HMO customers, was told it would get its vaccine before Thanksgiving. Now the vaccine is to arrive the first week of December, spokeswoman Pam Gadinsky said.

The company, which has nearly 130,000 customers in the Tampa Bay area, thinks that is too late for the sick and elderly. So Humana will reimburse any member who gets a flu shot elsewhere, such as at a pharmacy or grocery store.

Developing a flu vaccine is something of a race every summer, as scientists work to identify the strains of virus most likely to hit, then make enough vaccine fast enough for it to do any good.

Influenza circles the world from east to west, and the CDC and the World Health Organization post lookouts in Asia, Europe and Africa to determine which strains are most prevalent. U.S. health officials then decide on the makeup of the vaccine.

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