Swine Flu?s Multi-Shot Vaccine May Overwhelm State-Run Clinics

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a52Uaa6UqHsA

Swine Flu?s Multi-Shot Vaccine May Overwhelm State-Run Clinics

By Tom Randall

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The vaccine being developed to combat a pandemic of swine flu will require multiple shots to provide immunity from the new virus and the added immunizations may overwhelm U.S. state agencies, health officials said.

Two injections will be required three weeks apart for swine flu, also known as H1N1, and a third will be needed for seasonal flu, health officials said at a meeting today at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta. Children younger than 9 years will need four shots, the CDC said.

The U.S. government has taken the unusual step of purchasing all of the swine flu vaccine, and the shots will probably be administered through vaccine clinics set up by state health organizations, the CDC said. The agency estimates that at least 50 million vaccine doses will be available in the U.S. by October 15, and enough vaccine to immunize everyone in the country will be available later in the season.

?Public health departments are under-funded and will get fatigued,? said William Schaffner, an influenza expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, in an interview at the flu conference. ?One shot probably gives you very little immunity, 10 to 20 percent at most.?

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Randall in New York at trandall6@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 26, 2009 09:23 EDT

 

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Re: Swine Flu?s Multi-Shot Vaccine May Overwhelm State-Run Clinics

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=axzjhgp27HJ8

Swine Flu?s Multi-Shot Vaccine May Overwhelm States (Update1)
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By Tom Randall

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The vaccine being developed to combat a pandemic of swine flu will require multiple shots to provide immunity from the new virus, and the added immunizations may overwhelm U.S. state agencies, health officials said.

Two injections will be required three weeks apart for swine flu, also known as H1N1, and a third will be needed for seasonal flu, health officials said at a meeting today at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta. Children younger than 9 years will need four shots, the CDC said.

The U.S. government took the unusual step of purchasing all of the swine flu vaccine, and the shots will probably be administered through vaccine clinics set up by state health organizations, the CDC said. The agency estimates that at least 50 million vaccine doses will be available in the U.S. by October 15, and enough vaccine to immunize everyone in the country will be available later in the season.

?Public health departments are under-funded and will get fatigued,? said William Schaffner, an influenza expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, in an interview at the flu conference. ?One shot probably gives you very little immunity, 10 to 20 percent at most.?

Because the swine flu is a new virus, most people have no natural immunity. The first shot provides an initial exposure, and the second shot boosts antibody levels in the body, Schaffner said.

People over the age of 50 are getting swine flu at far lower rates than younger people, evidence they may have some immunity from prior exposures to a similar virus, and will only need one shot, the CDC said.

Dosage Tests

Children under the age of 9 have little immunity to any flu strain and need two shots for protection of seasonal flu, as well as two for swine flu, the CDC said. The agency is conducting tests to find the most effective dosing for different age groups.

The new flu is spreading at an epidemic rate earlier than the last two pandemics, in 1957 and 1968, said Nancy Cox, director of CDC?s flu division, in a presentation today. In those years, the virus emerged in late spring and subsided during the warmer summer months before picking up again in the fall.

The 2009 version is currently widespread across 11 states and circulating in parts of 19 others, according to a report presented yesterday at the CDC. The number of seasonal flu cases has declined as swine flu spread after it was first identified in April.

Tracking Side Effects

Scientists have used laboratory tests to confirm 27,715 cases of swine flu in the U.S., and as many as 1 million people may have been sick and not had testing, the CDC said. One reason the swine flu vaccine may be administered through state health clinics is to allow the U.S. to closely track vaccine use and side effects.

In a 1976 outbreak of swine flu, some people who received the vaccine developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that causes temporary full-body paralysis and can sometimes lead to death. The CDC estimates that the vaccine was responsible for 1 case out of every 100,000 vaccines. Increased rates haven?t been seen in other vaccines, and scientists still don?t what caused the link in 1976.

With rare side effects that occur in 1 in 100,000 patients or fewer, a state-run monitoring system is needed to collect enough data to alert health officials to problems with a new vaccine, the CDC said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Randall in New York at trandall6@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 26, 2009 10:44 EDT