Donated flu shots go to county emergency workers

Amid a nationwide shortage of flu vaccine, more than 200 community workers deemed "essential" by the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Department have received inoculations due to the generosity of a major local company.

Over the past two weeks, the health department has been carefully rationing out more than 400 doses of flu vaccine donated by Procter & Gamble Paper Products. Health department director Charlotte Craig said those doses have been dispensed according to the department's disaster plan, which identifies first responders, firefighters, law enforcement officers and other essential community workers as the first to receive any preventive medications.

"If our paramedics, firefighters, law enforcement officers can't respond to our needs because they are home with the flu, every Cape Girardeau County resident's safety and well-being is dangerously jeopardized," Craig said.

Craig said more than 200 of about 430 county emergency workers were immunized through the donation. Many workers chose not to be immunized because of the shortage. The remainder of the vaccine was sent to Southeast Missouri Hospital to be used for its essential personnel, such as emergency room and triage employees. Southeast was chosen because Saint Francis Medical Center had already received the vaccine it ordered from a different company.

But having dispensed every drop of vaccine donated by Procter & Gamble, the county is now back where it started: inundated with overwhelming public need and no vaccine to meet it.

Both the health department and Southeast Missouri Hospital, like many local health-care providers, had ordered their usual supply of vaccine from British-based manufacturer Chiron. However, earlier this year Chiron had its vaccination manufacturing license suspended due to quality control issues. The company was to make more than 46 million doses of vaccine for the United States, including 5,500 for the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Department.

Procter & Gamble had ordered vaccinations for its employees through a different company, the French company Aventis Pasteur. When the Cape Girardeau company received almost 500 doses last month, the corporate office and the local plant decided to donate them to the county health department.

Nurse Kim Jones of Procter & Gamble's Cape Girardeau plant said her company gives flu shots to almost 500 of its Cape Girardeau employees each year. But in light of this year's shortage, Jones said the company administered shots to only about 90 employees who were considered at high risk by Centers For Disease Control and Prevention criteria. They then sent the remaining doses to the county.

Hope ahead

Craig requests that the public not call the county health center about flu vaccine since the donated doses have been dispensed. To her knowledge, no more vaccine has found its way to any health-care providers in the county.

Health authorities report that there have been no confirmed flu cases in the state yet this season.

As for the prospects of getting more vaccine before flu season peaks in January and February, Craig is hopeful. Although she doesn't have a guarantee, she expects the county will receive some vaccine in December or January through the CDC's reallocation of the existing national supply. However, anything the CDC could provide would only be a portion of what the county needs. The vaccine received will go first to the elderly, young and chronically ill, Craig said.

choward@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137