Vaccine for Flu Clinics Delayed

Although delays in vaccine shipments have forced some Ventura County clinics to curtail or cancel flu-shot programs, county officials are confident there will be enough to meet the demand this year.

Distribution problems have caused the delays, which range from days to weeks, said Lin Glusac, immunization coordinator for the Ventura County Public Health Department.

The flu season runs from November to April, with the worst outbreaks usually falling in January, after holiday travel helps spread the virus around the country.

The vaccines will arrive, Glusac said, but they will be a little later this year.

The delays have hit hardest at smaller clinics. The Port Hueneme Senior Center canceled its flu-shot clinic earlier this month, while the Camarillo center moved its vaccination date back two months to Dec. 7.

Other clinics are worried about getting enough.

The Ventura Urgent Care & Family Practice Center expects to have just 250 shots available this year, office manager Barbara Sanchez said.

“That’s less than half of what we normally get,” Sanchez said. “We’ve tried to get more, and it seems like everybody’s out of it.”

Sanchez isn’t alone in her worries.

“We’ve been on a waiting list, and we may not get [any vaccine] at all,” said Annette Andrade, a medical assistant at Community Family Practice in Ventura. “It was never a problem before. Now it is. . . . It’s a big mess.”

Larger institutions seem to be faring better. Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Assn. already has administered about 2,000 flu vaccinations, with another 5,000 doses on hand and 9,000 more on the way, said Linda Hampson, the group’s flu program manager.

“The manufacturers are releasing the vaccine incrementally,” Hampson said. “I think I can cover my first several weeks.”

The association has dozens of vaccination clinics planned for the next two months at Longs drugstores and Kmarts throughout Ventura County.

St. John’s hospitals in Camarillo and Oxnard plan five flu-shot clinics in November and December. The hospitals have enough serum to cover the shots, which will cost $10 apiece, spokeswoman Rita O’Connor said.

“We don’t think that we’re going to have a problem with it,” O’Connor said.

County Plans Up to 26,000 Shots

Last year in Thousand Oaks, 2,000 people showed up for just 1,000 available flu shots, said Kris Carraway-Bowman of Los Robles Regional Medical Center. This year, the hospital is prepared to meet the demand at its three free immunization clinics.

“Our confidence and our comfort level are very high,” Carraway-Bowman said. “We don’t anticipate turning away anybody this year.”

The delay in receiving the vaccines seems to get worse every year, she said.

“We’ve been getting them later and later,” Carraway-Bowman said. “This year is one of the latest. . . .We were on pins and needles waiting for the shipments to come in.”

The county, meanwhile, plans to offer up to 26,000 flu shots this season, Glusac said. County-sponsored shots will begin Nov. 1 for a requested donation of $10.

Healthy people should wait until December to get their shots, Glusac said.

Doses Set Aside for High-Risk Patients

Although anyone is eligible to receive flu shots at Ventura Urgent Care, the clinic will set aside 50 doses for high-risk patients.

These include people over 50 and anyone with a chronic problem of the heart, lungs or immune system, Dr. Kirk Campana of the center said.

Health care workers who regularly come in contact with infected patients also should receive shots, he said.

This year, the vaccine aims to protect people against three strains of the respiratory virus: Moscow, New Caledonia and Sichuan. Researchers must work a year ahead to develop vaccines for the strains they believe will be the most virulent in the next year.

FYI

For information on obtaining a flu shot, patients should contact their physician or call the county at 1-800-781-4449. Shots will also be available, sometimes for a fee, at local hospitals, health clinics or senior centers and at special clinics at some Longs and Kmart stores.