Flu Vaccine Supplies Are Adequate, Experts Say

The two major U.S. manufacturers of the influenza vaccine said Friday that they have shipped all of this year’s production and will not be able to make any more before the flu season ends.

Although spot shortages of the vaccine exist, many doses are still in the pipeline and almost everyone who wants a shot should be able to get one, experts said.

Additionally, 4 million doses of a new oral flu vaccine called FluMist are available, which should help to ease shortages.

Aventis Pasteur and Chiron Corp. produced an estimated 83 million doses of flu vaccine this fall. The United States has never used more than 80 million doses in a flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a typical year, 70 to 75 million people get the shots.

But demand has surged this year, prompted by an early start of the flu season and reports of flu-related deaths in November, including at least seven children in Colorado. In a normal year, about 114,000 people are hospitalized by influenza and 36,000 die, but experts expect those numbers to double this winter.

“This year, it appears that many more people than in recent years received a flu shot during October and November and, unlike other years, there is a high interest in obtaining flu shots into December,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC.

Last year in Colorado, for example, Kaiser Permanente administered 95,000 flu shots, according to Dr. Eric France, the company’s chief of preventive medicine. “This year, the number is 120,000 and rising.”

In El Paso County, Colo., the health agency tried to order 2,000 doses of the vaccine this week, but could procure only 500, according to county health director Rosemary Bakes-Martin.

“We’ve seen an unprecedented surge of vaccine orders,” said Len Lavenda, a spokesman for Aventis Pasteur. “We have now shipped all our available supplies.”

It takes about four months to manufacture the vaccine, so neither Aventis nor Chiron will be able to produce more before the flu season ends in March.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services said Friday it has distributed 43,000 more doses of vaccine to clinics than last year, a total of 138,000 doses. The department’s latest request for an additional 7,000 doses, however, was turned down by the manufacturer, said Dr. Laurene Mascola, director of the department’s Acute Communicable Disease Control Program.

DHS distributes about 11% of the total flu vaccine used in the county.

The CDC is attempting to transfer vaccines from states with an excess to those with shortages, Gerberding said.

She said it is not unusual for vaccine supplies to be limited at this time of year as health-care providers begin to wind down their vaccination programs.

One solution for many people may be FluMist, the recently approved oral vaccine produced by MedImmune Inc. and distributed by Wyeth.

Sales have been slow so far, experts say, because FluMist is nearly twice as expensive as conventional vaccine, and its cost is not covered by many insurance plans. MedImmune has recently begun offering a $25 rebate coupon with the vaccine, however, to encourage sales.

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Times staff writer David Kelly contributed to this report.