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Vaccine shortages frustrate everyone

Scarcity leads to calls for stockpiles and campaigns stressing the importance of an uninterrupted immunization schedule.

By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. March 4, 2002.

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Washington -- Serious shortages of vaccines for childhood diseases are rocking the foundation of preventive medicine, physicians have warned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Antigens used in four commonly administered vaccines are in short supply, forcing physicians to postpone necessary immunizations until supplies are available -- a date that is often uncertain.

This latest chapter in the ever-growing saga of vaccine paucity prompted the CDC to gather some key players for a brainstorming session on how to strengthen future supplies.

"Vaccine delayed is vaccine denied," Louis Z. Cooper, MD, professor of pediatrics at Columbia University, told the gathering. The shortages are undermining the trust of families, he said, and leaving pediatricians "frustrated, fearful and anxious."

Calling the shortages "an acute and significant problem," the AMA recently asked Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to establish a departmental task force to examine the reasons for recent shortages, which also include diagnostic agents and other drugs.

The task force should include representatives from the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and it should seek the input of the pharmaceutical industry, distributors, physicians and pharmacy organizations, said the AMA.

The long-term impact on patients should also be considered, L.J. Tan, PhD, senior scientist at the AMA, told meeting participants. When patients are turned away, will they come back, or will they lose their "medical home" to the supermarket that has, for example, received a supply of flu vaccine while the physician has not, he asked. [...]