Vaccination clinic canceled
By: John Tredrea
The Hopewell Township Health Department has canceled its annual free flu vaccination clinic indefinitely because the department will not be receiving its ordered vaccine shipment due to a national shortage of the vaccine.
The clinic had tentatively been scheduled for Monday.
Gary Guarino, township health officer, said the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Federal Drug Administration (FDA) are working with the U.S. manufacturers of flu vaccine to see about redistributing the existing supply so populations most at risk can receive the vaccine.
Only two companies (Aventis Pasteur in United States and Chiron in Great Britian) make the vaccine (a third company makes FluMist). The supply was cut in half when Chiron had its license revoked just two months before the start of flu season, taking 48 million vaccines out of the distribution pipeline.
"In the meantime, to assure an adequate supply, we are suggesting that only those considered at high risk for flu be vaccinated," Mr. Guarino said. "The private sector may have already received some or all of their supply from the U.S. manufacturer."
Those people on one of the priority groups should first contact their health-care provider, he said. If they do not have any vaccine, patients can try www.findaflushot.com, which can be searched by ZIP code. Be sure to call the clinic provider to make sure that the clinic is still being held.
The following high-risk priority groups have been established by the CDC:
All children age 6 to 23 months
Adults aged 65 years and older
Persons age 2 to 64 years with underlying chronic medical conditions
All women who will be pregnant during the influenza season
Residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities
Children age 6 months to 18 years on chronic aspirin therapy
Health-care workers involved in direct patient care
Out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children age less than 6 months.
A spokeswoman at one local physician’s office surveyed Monday said he had a flu supply for his own patients.
"We have vaccine and will be able to give flu vaccinations to our own patients who qualify under the interim guidelines. If the guidelines change, we will change the availability of the vaccine accordingly," said Patricia Winkler, practice administrator for Dr. Ronald Grossman in Hopewell Borough.
Like Mr. Guarino, Ms. Winkler suggested that individuals concerned about flu vaccine call their own health-care provider.
"We don’t have any flu vaccine and we won’t be getting any," Pennington physician Dr. Thomas Piepszak said Tuesday. "Both our suppliers have been told by the federal government to send the vaccine where senior citizens and others who need it most would be able to get it."
Dr. Piepszak advised residents to follow the cautionary procedures, intended to avoid getting the flu.
FluMist, a nasal vaccine, is available in limited supply, Mr. Guarino said.
FluMist is for those healthy adults under 50 years of age, who are health-care workers involved in direct patient care, provided they are not pregnant, do not care for severely immunocompromised patients in special care units, do not care for children under 6 months of age. Anyone who takes FluMist must refrain from contact with severely immunosuppressed patients for seven days after receiving the vaccine. Individuals with questions about FluMist should call their health-care provider.
Health officials say that, in order to protect yourself from any respiratory infection:
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing; promptly dispose of the tissue and wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water (20 seconds).
If no tissue is available, cover your mouth and nose with hands; promptly wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water.
When soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers.
Keep hands away from eyes, nose, and mouth.
Stay away from people who are sick; wear a surgical mask when caring for sick people.
Stay home when you are sick so as not to expose others.
More information is available at the CDC’s Web site, www.cdc.gov/flu.
If the vaccine becomes available to township Health Department, that information will be relayed to the public using the township’s Web site, cable channel and in local newspapers.