Flu vaccine restrictions lifted

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

The state Health Department is again offering flu shots to anyone who wants one, ending two months of rationing prompted when Hawai'i's supply of vaccine ran low.

Health Department immunization educator Judy Strait-Jones said the state lifted the restrictions on the shots after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released more vaccine.

In December state health officials reserved Hawai'i's dwindling supply of vaccine for people at a higher risk for serious reactions to the flu: pregnant women, the very young, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses such as asthma or diabetes.

"We hope that most of the people who are at high risk already got their shots," Strait-Jones said.

She said there now is enough vaccine for anyone who wants a flu shot. She said people who want the free shot should get a referral from their doctor and go to a Department of Health clinic to receive it.

Officials worry that people will think that the flu season is over because it got an early start in Hawai'i this year. But for the past 20 years, the peak of the number of suspected flu cases in Hawai'i came in February.

Tracy Ayers, state influenza surveillance coordinator, said there have been 417 confirmed influenza cases since Oct. 1 — two of them influenza B and the rest influenza A. That is more than quadruple the number of confirmed cases by this point in last year's flu season with only 88 confirmed cases, she said.

The flu is being taken more seriously this year because the season got going earlier than normal and has been linked to the deaths of 129 children on the Mainland as of last week.

In Hawai'i, the number of cases of flu and influenzalike illnesses reported by doctors' offices shot up to more than 8 percent of all visits in the last week of December through the second week of January, Ayers said. The disease trackers saw the percentage of people reporting related illnesses steadily decline since then.

During the peak of a typical flu season 8 percent to 10 percent of patients visiting doctors have a flulike illness. There have been no signs that this year's illness is more severe than previous years, officials said.

For more information on the shots, call the 211 telephone referral service. For more information on flu season and flu shots, go to www.state.hi.us/doh or vaxhawaii.com.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.