Flu vaccine is absent at county health office

The workers at the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center know at least two things for certain: First, that flu season is approaching, and second, they have absolutely no flu vaccines for those in need.

Employees at the center spent a good portion of their time Tuesday explaining that to aggravated, concerned and desperate callers in search of the increasingly rare inoculation. Some had misread a Southeast Missourian story reporting that fewer than 4,000 of the 23,000 doses of vaccine ordered in the county had been received. Private practitioners have the vaccine that exists in the county, not the health department.

"A lot of the callers are in the high-risk categories and probably need the vaccine," said Jane Wernsman, assistant director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center. "We just don't have it."

The county health department was one of many health-care providers nationwide that ordered their flu vaccines from British-based producer Chiron. Last week it was announced that Chiron had been shut down due to quality control violations. The company was to make more than 46 million doses of vaccine for the United States, including 5,500 for the Cape Girardeau County Health Department, which gave out over 4,500 flu shots last season. Those orders will now go largely unfilled.

"We don't have any," said health department director Charlotte Craig. "We never had any and it doesn't look like we're going to get any."

Craig indicated that to be the case in most health-care providers throughout the county.

Susan McClanahan, administrator at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center, said they've been logging 15 to 20 calls a day from similarly concerned citizens. Unfortunately, she said she has nowhere but the county health center to send them.

"I don't know what to tell them," McClanahan said. "I tell them if they're under 65, they're probably not going to be able to get any vaccine."

That's largely because Missouri Department of Health has issued a health alert imploring the public to reserve what little vaccine is in supply for people that the federal Centers For Disease Control and Prevention consider high-risk from complications of flu. They include people 65 years and older, children 6 months to 23 months of age, people of any age with chronic medical conditions and pregnant women.

McClanahan offers precautions directed primarily at senior citizens. She said she tells them not to go to the doctor's office unless they absolutely have to. She also urges sick people -- employees and visitors alike -- not to come to the senior center, where their germs can spread.

The CDC also lists several antiviral medications available by prescription that can be used to prevent the flu. They include amantadine, rimantadine and oseltamivir.

trehagen@semissourian.com

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