The U.S. flu fiasco

[brownie]

Images of US citizens queuing for flu shots are being watched with amazement by non-US viewers.

Nothing like this fiasco in Europe.

From the International Herald Tribune today.

 

No U.S.-style shortage of flu shots in Europe 

  By Elisabeth Rosenthal

PARIS While patients are panicking over a shortage of flu vaccines in the United States, vaccination programs in Europe are progressing smoothly with a good supply of medicine, health authorities say.

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"The World Health Organization has not heard of any shortages in Europe, and it's very very likely we would have heard if there were problems," said Dr. Nedret Emiroglu, of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.

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Unlike childhood vaccinations, which are standardized and tracked by the international health agency, flu vaccine is purchased from a number of manufacturers by individual countries and prescribed somewhat differently in each place.

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The crisis in the United States was set off when a factory in Liverpool, England, owned by the biotech company Chiron, lost its license to produce vaccine for the season after some batches were found to be contaminated by bacteria. The U.S. government and individual doctors had contracted with Chiron to provide 50 million doses of flu vaccine this year, nearly half of the national requirement.

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Most countries contract with several different manufacturers, in part to avoid critical dependence on any one supplier. And though countries other than the United States had placed orders with Chiron for smaller portions of their vaccine needs, no other country was so dependent on the Liverpool factory.

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In England, for example, the National Health Service bought the 14 million doses of flu vaccine that it needed from five or six suppliers, said Alison Langley, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health. Two million of those doses were to have come from the Chiron factory in Liverpool. "But we were able to make that up with additional purchases from elsewhere," Langley said. "So there is no problem here."

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The Institute for Public Health in Slovenia purchased its 180,000 doses of vaccine from Aventis Pasteur, based in Lyon, as well as from Chiron. But it has already taken delivery of its full supply, and "it is not so common to get flu shots" in the country, said Bojana Leskovar, a public relations consultant to the Health Ministry.

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In Western Europe, as in the United States, flu vaccines are recommended as part of the national vaccination strategy. In much of Eastern Europe it is treated as a personal choice, Emiroglu said.

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Chiron manufactures vaccines at a number of different facilities in Europe. It is unclear which countries other than the United States and Britain had placed orders to be filled at the Liverpool factory. Chiron did not return phone calls.

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Huge flu vaccine campaigns are under way in many European countries and will continue until the end of November.

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Even for healthy people, infection with the influenza virus is far nastier than a common cold. But for the elderly, the very young and people with chronic diseases, influenza can be lethal.

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Flu vaccine is constituted each year depending on what strains of influenza international health organizations predict will be most common. So doses from 2003 cannot be used in 2004. Also, as the vaccine takes months to grow and test, factories tend to make only slightly more than the number of doses ordered for a season. New vaccine cannot be created now to make up for shortfalls.

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"Production is finished, and more can't be made at this point," said Arne Naveke, of Aventis Pasteur MSD, which is the largest marketer of the flu vaccine in Europe, selling 31 million doses a year in the European market.

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"In general, not many manufacturers are left in the world for flu vaccine, because it is very difficult to produce - it's a high-risk, low-profit product."

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But, Naveke said, the effect of the Liverpool plant's suspension on the supply in vaccine in Europe was minimal since the factory produced only a small number of doses that stayed here. Aventis Pasteur is the world's largest manufacturer of flu vaccines, with Chiron the second.

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On Aug. 26, Chiron announced that 8 out of 60 lots of flu vaccine manufactured at its Liverpool plant were contaminated, initiating internal and British regulatory investigations into the problem. As late as Sept. 28, Chiron executives were still assuring U.S. doctors that the vaccine would be ready for release, with a slight delay, by early October.

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But on Oct. 5, Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency temporarily suspended the company's license to manufacture the flu vaccine at the Liverpool factory for three months, asserting that it did not comply with Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. Although American officials had initially hoped that some of the lots could be salvaged and used, their own investigation concluded that the Chiron vaccine could not be used during the 2004-5 flu season.

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The result has been huge shortfalls in the United States, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that healthy people aged 2 to 64 should "postpone or skip" to ensure doses for those at high risk of fatal complications from the flu.

As an elderly citizen, I had a free anti-flu shot last week. No standing, no waiting...

[mikeweil]

"In general, not many manufacturers are left in the world for flu vaccine, because it is very difficult to produce - it's a high-risk, low-profit product."

That sums it up for me.

[Shrdlu]

Does a person really need a vaccine? My family and I have just put up with the flu and regarded it as part of life, like gum on the sidewalk.

[catesta]

I can't say I've ever had a flu shot as an adult. I don't care for needles so it would not be high priority for me at this stage in my life. I wash my hands a zillion times a day anyways, so I'm lower risk.

CNN

CBS

I'm no sure it's as big of a crisis as most people think.

[RDK]

It's sorta like when we hear about a Blue Note CD going out-of-print. It may have been sitting in the racks of Tower Records for years, it was a session we never really cared about and had no intention of purchasing. But then we get that e-mail from True Blue announcing its cut status and...

[catesta]

It's sorta like when we hear about a Blue Note CD going out-of-print. It may have been sitting in the racks of Tower Records for years, it was a session we never really cared about and had no intention of purchasing. But then we get that e-mail from True Blue announcing its cut status and...

No vaccine available for this sickness either, I'm afraid.

[Rooster_Ties]

It's sorta like when we hear about a Blue Note CD going out-of-print...

Which one??!!??!!!! God damn it, I have to know which one!!!

Does anybody here have a duplicate to offer??

I mean, I know it might be one I already own -- but what if it isn't??? I can't afford that risk!!!

Somebody, please help!!