Flu Vaccine Shortage

October 5, 2004
Chiron Corp., which makes half the flu vaccine for the United States, says contamination problems at its British plant means it won't be supply any flu vaccine at all this year. U.S. health care centers depending on that vaccine have been thrown into a near-panic.

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Federal health officials stated the obvious - that this manufacturing problem poses a serious challenge just as flu season is getting underway. In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services said officials expect to have approximately 54 million doses of the flu vaccine Aventis and between one and two million does of FluMist nasal spray, which is not approved for use by the very old and the very young - the people most vulnerable to flu.

Many health care centers already have initial supplies of flu vaccine on hand and will not be affected by problems, unless they need to replenish supplies. Pharmacists say it takes several months to produce a vaccine, which must be changed each year to combat the strains of influenza expected to be most common.

U.S. officials had been counting on Chiron to supply 48 million out of 100 million doses of vaccine this year, and the U.S. Government is already a week into a campaign to urge Americans to get vaccinated against flu, which kills 36,000 people in the United States and 500,000 worldwide in an average season.

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