Flu Vaccine Nearly Depleted

Saying the 19 cases reported so far are “just the tip of the iceberg,” Ventura County’s top health officer warned Friday that the flu season is in full swing just as the county’s vaccine supply has been nearly exhausted.

Since October, the county has distributed more than 15,000 doses of this year’s vaccine through clinics and nursing homes. Officials expected that to be plenty, but an early and virulent beginning of the flu season has spurred increased demand.

Adding to the problem was the announcement Friday by the two U.S. manufacturers of flu vaccine that they had sold all their supplies this season and would not be producing any more.

While most Ventura County-sponsored clinics were effectively out of the vaccine as of Friday afternoon, Dr. Robert Levin, the county’s public health officer, said he hoped to procure more from distributors.

“We’re trying in several different ways to get more,” he said. “It’s just a matter of whether we’ll get lucky or not.”

The vaccine, the best defense against the respiratory illness, is still available at some private clinics, doctors’ offices and pharmacies, Levin said.

The shots are strongly recommended for adults over age 50, children ages 6 months to 2 years and everyone with conditions such as diabetes, asthma, emphysema and heart disease. But Levin said he would cast a wider net this year among those who should be inoculated.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea for everybody to get it,” he said. “The groups that are excluded still get really, really sick if they get the flu.”

Beginning in late October, county health officials distributed the vaccine to high-risk residents through the county’s five health clinics, several hospitals and about 45 nursing homes, said Lin Glusac, immunization coordinator for the county’s Public Health Department.

The last county-sponsored vaccination clinic is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday at the Camarillo Community Center on East Burnley Avenue. Santa Paula Hospital also is offering shots on a walk-in basis for the next two weeks, she said.

But those vaccines are available only to high-risk groups. Others should call their own health providers, Glusac said.

Joanne Chang, the employee health nurse at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, also has been referring anxious callers to their private physicians, urgent care centers and local pharmacies.

Chang said the hospital has administered all of the 2,500 doses it received from the county, along with 750 doses it ordered for its staff members and volunteers. She said she hoped to receive an additional 300 doses from distributors this weekend for staff members who decided to take advantage of their employer’s vaccination offer after hearing news about flu-related fatalities in Colorado.

Although county physicians reported a total of 19 flu cases this week, Levin said there were probably scores more because doctors were not mandated to report the illness.

The influenza season normally runs from December through March, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it began early this year, the CDC said, and fatalities already have been reported in Colorado, Texas, Washington and New Mexico.

The most virulent flu strain this year, the Fujian H3N2, has been identified in California. It isn’t included in the flu vaccine, but a related Panama strain is and should offer at least partial protection, Levin said. The most common flu symptoms are sudden fever, severe muscle aches and pains, cough and/or sore throat. If the vaccine does become impossible to find, Levin said there was no need to panic.

“There are a gazillion people that don’t get flu shots every year,” he said. “Maybe every fifth or seventh year they get the flu.... We’re mostly concerned about the high-risk people, because it’s not as easy for them to suffer through it.”