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Flu vaccine stampede offers preview of pandemic

State health departments scrambled to connect those in need of a flu shot with dwindling supplies.

By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Jan. 5, 2004.

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Washington -- There could be a silver lining to this season's widespread shortage of flu vaccine.

After the panic caused by last fall's severe and early flu outbreak, people may in future years place a higher priority on rolling up their sleeves for that annual pre-Thanksgiving shot, thus providing manufacturers a more predictable market and cutting down on the estimated 36,000 deaths attributed to the flu each year.

"We've tried to scare people for years to get them to get their flu shots. But they didn't respond until this year," said Richard Raymond, MD, chief medical officer for the Nebraska Health and Human Services System.

Nebraska, like many other states, was faced with a run on vaccine supplies when residents were frightened by reports of flu deaths of several children in neighboring Colorado. As the news traveled, resulting shortages prompted health officials in several locations to take creative steps to redistribute meager supplies so those at highest risk had a better chance of finding the vaccine.

Dr. Raymond used his state's Health Alert Network, which was developed using federal bioterrorism dollars, to collect information from physicians, pharmacists and others who still had vaccine.

The responses to the alert began at 8 a.m. on Dec. 8, 2003. By 5 p.m. that night, every local health department had faxed the total number of doses they had in their districts. "We were able to do something so that those people who called knew where to go to get flu vaccine," said Dr. Raymond. Ultimately, though, "all we did was help everybody run out by Wednesday rather than by Friday."