Flu shot rules working, state says

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

If physicians and patients statewide continue to follow federal guidelines and limit flu shots to those who are most vulnerable, Hawai'i may have enough flu vaccine to protect those at highest risk for serious complications through this flu season, according to the state Health Department.

"That is quite a substantial amount of vaccine," she said. "Some states are worse off."

Demand for flu shots remains high.

"People are calling every day," said Dr. Robert Sussman, medical director of The Medical Corner, which operates urgent-care clinics in Kailua, Kapolei and Waikiki and at the airport. "They ask, 'Do you have it? Can I get it?' "

But Rosen said she is hopeful that those most at risk will be accommodated because of the large number of doses that came to the Islands and the overall positive attitude from the medical community and the general public.

State officials estimate that 100,000 people, or nearly 10 percent of the population, fall into the high-priority risk groups of the young, the old and the sick that should get the shots.

Rosen has continued to work with physician groups, healthcare organizations, long-term care facilities and pharmacies to look for ways to distribute any unused vaccine.

In collaboration with HMSA, the state's largest health insurer, the state has a pool of about 6,000 doses of flu vaccine, which it may begin distributing as early as mid-November.

Limited clinics are being planned statewide. The public is asked to call Aloha United Way's 211 telephone referral line after Monday to find out details of distribution.

Rosen said the state will determine how best to distribute the remaining vaccine to chronically ill children, adults and the elderly who have not been able to get a flu shot from their doctors.

She expected that doctors will write requests similar to prescriptions to allow their patients access to the remaining vaccine.

The state and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended that most healthy people skip flu shots this year to reserve the remaining scarce supply for those most at risk from serious complications from the flu. That's in response to the news early this month that Chiron Corp. would not produce more than 46 million doses — about half the U.S. supply — after being shut down by British authorities.

Sussman believes that many high-risk people have received their flu shots by now, but said his clinics are hearing from healthcare workers as they realize they won't get routine shots at work as they normally do. Healthcare organizations typically offer vaccine to their healthy workers because they are exposed to many sick people and to those at high risk, but this year many of those workers had to do without.

Counting the doses of influenza vaccine that come to the state in a year is harder than it sounds because most of the shots are provided through private sources — doctor's offices, community clinics and drugstores — with government routinely handling very little of the vaccine, said Rosen. "We don't know how much was available last year," she said.

Even though people are concerned — and some a little panicky — at facing the flu season without a shot, most people have been understanding about the priority shift created by the nationwide shortage, she said.

"We really appreciate that those physicians with extra vaccine, originally intended for their healthy patients, are making it available to other physicians' patients that fall into the high-risk groups," Rosen said.

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