County down to 200 flu shots

~ Public health officials ordered 4,500 doses, but the manufacturer overestimated what it could provide.

The flu-shot clinics in Cape Girardeau and Jackson next week could be the last ones this year due to a flu-shot shortage that has left the county Public Health Center with only 200 doses of the vaccine.

"Ever since 2000, it's been a fiasco, a debacle," said center director Charlotte Craig. "It's a critical situation I believe."

The center originally ordered 4,500 doses from Chiron, one of four flu-shot manufacturers in the country. All along, the company said it was going to be able to fill its orders.

Until it said it couldn't.

"Right up until Oct. 17, we were told we were getting our order of flu shots," Craig said. "Then we get a press release saying the company had overestimated what they could do. What happened between Friday and Monday, who knows? It's getting ridiculous."

If it weren't for Adair County in Missouri, the public health center may not have gotten any flu shots at all. Earlier this month, Adair County public health officials notified Craig that they had ordered 2,000 doses too many and asked if she was interested in buying them. Naturally, she was.

After getting the doses, the health center promptly held three flu clinics in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Delta. There they administering most of the shots to those who are at high risk for contracting the flu, including the elderly, infants, those with chronic health problems, emergency first-responders and government officials.

The center is left with about 200 doses, which are expected to disappear quickly next week at clinics where drivers can pull up and get vaccinations without exiting their cars.

The clinic in Jackson will be from 9 a.m. to noon Monday at the Jackson fire and police station at 525 S. Hope St. The Cape Girardeau clinic will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday at Fire Station No. 2 at Bloomfield and Mount Auburn roads. Each clinic will have only about 100 doses. Again, only those at high risk for getting the flu will be administered the doses.

The shots will cost $20 each, Craig said, though the center will take Medicaid and Medicare.

The flu-shot shortage isn't just a local problem. A survey conducted last week by the National Association of County & City Health Officials said all 50 states have vaccine-supply concerns. Some areas have canceled as many as a dozen flu-shot sessions scheduled for October because of inadequate supplies.

Locally, some doctors offices have flu shots and others don't.

At Physicians Associates in Cape Girardeau, patient care coordinator Sue Wibbenmeyer said they got their normal supply as well as an extra 250 doses. But she said they only give shots to their patients and not walk-ins.

She said she received 100 percent of the order she booked in February.

Regional Primary Care was told it would get its flu shots on Monday, but the doses never came.

Craig complained that some large private companies may be getting priority in the vaccine-distribution process. Many of the nation's larger providers of flu shots, such as Maxim Health Systems, which runs flu-shot clinics in retail stores and offices, say their supplies are adequate to begin running clinics. Flu-shot clinics have already begun in retail chains across the country like Walgreens, Safeway and CVS.

Craig said one of the center's nurses noticed that a Walgreens near St. Louis was hosting a flu-shot clinic recently.

"It's sad when Walgreens can get flu shots but public health centers can't," Craig said. "What does that tell you?"

Currently only four manufacturers supply the entire U.S. market with flu vaccine: Chiron, Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and MedImmune Inc. Chiron hasn't shipped any vaccine this year, so much of the burden has fallen on Sanofi-Aventis, the nation's largest flu vaccine provider. But the company can't keep up with demand.

"Frankly, we can't supply the entire nation," company spokesman Len Lavenda said in a published report. "There are always providers who are unable to get as much vaccine as they want from us -- or even any."

For the county public health center, the frustration continues. Craig orders her vaccine through two separate suppliers, which order it from the Chiron. Next year, she said, she might have to order directly from the company.

"We've got to do something," she said. "We can't keep having this."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137