- Hello, Jeff - The last sentence says it all:
-
- "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
was working to find out where vaccines had already been shipped to
providers
such as clinics, drug stores and employers."
-
- It does appear that some of the Chiron vaccine IS ALREADY
in the US and has been sent to providers for use on the public.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- US Scrambles For Flu Vaccines After
Contamination
By Maggie Fox
Health And Science Correspondent
10-6-4
-
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
health officials began a search for extra flu vaccines on Wednesday after
one of only two major manufacturers, Chiron Corp., lost its entire year's
production to contamination.
-
- A million extra doses were coaxed out of vaccine maker
Aventis-Pasteur, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
said.
-
- U.S. officials were also speaking to British regulators
who revoked Chiron's flu vaccine license to confirm whether all 48 million
doses would be kept off the market.
-
- Chiron's surprise announcement on Tuesday that British
regulators had found widespread problems at its Liverpool vaccine plant
meant the United States lost nearly half its anticipated influenza vaccine
supply for the 2004-2005 flu season just starting now.
-
- After last year's unusually early flu season made
headlines,
vaccine officials had hoped that the normally unenthusiastic U.S.
population
might actually step up and get vaccinated in large numbers.
-
- Now these officials will have to cajole vaccine providers
into sharing their stashes, and convince the U.S. public to save vaccine
for those who need it most.
-
- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said
the United States now had 55.4 million doses of vaccine on hand or
available.
-
- USABLE DOSES
-
- Scientists with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
will meet on Friday with Chiron officials, Thompson told reporters.
-
- It may be possible to find some doses that were not
contaminated
and that might be usable, he said. However, he cautioned, "It does
not look promising at this point."
-
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was
working
to find out where vaccines had already been shipped to providers such as
clinics, drug stores and employers. Continued ...
-
- © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
-
-
- "What we are hoping to do is to map out available
vaccine in a way that will help clarify where the most likely areas of
shortage will be," said CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "Keep
in mind that vaccine distribution for flu is largely in the private sector.
We do not have the authority to require redirection."
-
- CDC says only high-risk people should now be getting
the flu vaccine and that others should wait. Those in the high-risk group
include babies aged 6 months to 23 months, people over 65, pregnant women
and people with chronic diseases.
-
- Gerberding said the shortage illustrated a chronic
problem
-- a lack of vaccine makers.
-
- "Our entire vaccine production system is fragile
in our country. We periodically have vaccine shortages because there are
too few manufacturers and too few products," she said.
-
- "We need a comprehensive national strategy with
the private sector to develop a manufacturing capacity that doesn't exist
at the moment."
-
- Although health officials have been warning of shortages
for years, experts agreed this was the worst yet. "This catastrophe
I think is going to be an impetus to the Congress and the manufacturers
to start transforming the way we make vaccines," Thompson said.
-
- Influenza vaccine takes months to manufacture and has
to be made fresh every year based on circulating strains.
-
- Doctors can turn to antiviral drugs, such as Roche's
Tamiflu, amantadine, rimantadine and zanamivir, sold by GlaxoSmithKline
under the brand name Relenza. But they are no substitute for vaccination
against a disease that kills 36,000 Americans in an average year.
-
- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.
- jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6433075
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
- board at:
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/
- postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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