Flu vaccine runs short

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Procrastinators who aren't at high risk for complications from the flu have probably lost out on the opportunity to get a flu shot this year.

State epidemiologist Paul Effler said yesterday that the Health Department has set aside 800 adult and 1,600 pediatric doses to be administered through the department's public health clinics.

Doctors who have run out of the vaccine can send their high-risk patients to one of the public clinics — doctor's note and confirmed appointment in hand — to get a free vaccination while supplies last, he said.

The Hawai'i Medical Service Association has completed a two-month series of flu shot clinics and will donate their remaining 400 doses to the Health Department, HMSA officials said yesterday.

Effler said he hoped that most high-risk patients had been vaccinated, and that supplies would be sufficient to vaccinate those most in need.

Healthy children between the ages of 6 months to 23 months need to be vaccinated, he said, as do adults age 65 and older.

The department also advises vaccinations for pregnant women in their second or third trimester and for people with chronic health concerns, such as asthma or heart problems.

Linda Rosen, Hawai'i's deputy health director, was quoted in a Dec. 6 story in The Advertiser, saying that despite shortages elsewhere, Hawai'i had enough of the vaccine to cover the usual number of vaccination requests plus the extra demand she anticipated would be caused by reports of extensive outbreaks on the Mainland.

"I was lulled into a sense of false security," said Stephen Tenby, a pediatrician in Kahala.

Tenby, who said he has never run out of flu vaccine in 30 years of practice, said he'd recently began hearing rumors of shortages, and called R. Weinstein Inc., a pharmaceutical and medical supply company that distributes statewide. It said it was out. He said he continued to call around until he found a small supply in 'Aiea, and bought all of it.

He still probably won't have enough to vaccinate all of his patients under age 2, he said.

Effler said reports of flu outbreaks on the Mainland and of shortages there fueled an unanticipated demand for the vaccine in Hawai'i.

The number of actual flu cases in Hawai'i does not appear to be unusually high, he said, but the state is still a month away from peak levels.

Confirmed cases of the flu, which represent only a small number of people who actually suffer it because testing is not extensive, were up to 70, he said.

Doctors are reporting that 6 percent of the patients who come into their offices are suffering flu-like symptoms, he said. At peak flu levels, which traditionally occur after the holidays in Hawai'i, doctors typically report 8 percent of their patients appear to have something consistent with the flu, he said.

Carolyn Lessary of R. Weinstein said the company, which supplies most of the healthcare providers on O'ahu and other providers statewide, has been sold out of the vaccine since Dec. 5 — about the same time the Mainland began reporting shortages.

The company ordered the same amount of the vaccine — more than 10,000 vials, each containing enough vaccine to vaccinate 10 people — as last year, she said.

Last year the supply lasted until May, and the company had some left over.

This year, she said, the company wasn't able to supply Kaiser with the full amount of their last request.

"We couldn't give them half of what they wanted," she said. "We were that much down."

Phyllis Dendle, a spokeswoman for Kaiser, said all clinics have a supply of the vaccine, but because of the diminished supply, the HMO is now limiting vaccinations to those patients who are at high risk.

"There has been a big demand," Dendle said. "So far this year we have given out over 60,000 shots, which is about 20 percent more than previous years.

"We ordered 20 percent more, even before we knew people were going to be this scared."

Dendle said Kaiser had checked with other suppliers.

"They don't have any more," she said. "It's just not available."

Pat Oda, a spokeswoman for Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children, said the outpatient pediatric clinic was out of vaccine.

Cindy Terao, a Kane'ohe mother of an 11- and a 6-year-old, said after her allergist recommended she take the flu shot because he thought it would be a particularly bad season, she asked her children's pediatrician on Friday about the vaccine.

"They said they had a limited supply on hand and were reserving it for children with a history of hospitalization or bad asthma," she said.

Jessica Omoto of 'Aiea said she thinks she has missed out on the opportunity to get her 8-year-old son, Avery, vaccinated, but hopes her 17-month-old daughter, Kayla, will be able to get a shot.

"I heard about the deaths of infants on the Mainland and that is when I got concerned," Omoto said.

"I'm not hearing about cases in Avery's school, but his uncle, a teacher in Mililani has it. So I said: stay away!"

Eric Kashiwamura, an engineer at HECO, said he, his wife and his two children have all been vaccinated.

"We did it in — I think it was October," he said. "We try to do it early because we find that if we do get sick, it isn't as bad."

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.