Area Flu Battle Gets a Shot in the Arm

Health officials said Tuesday that they had completed a campaign to vaccinate Los Angeles County’s approximately 29,000 nursing home residents and were increasingly confident that many of those at highest risk for flu-related illness would get shots despite a national vaccine shortage.

The optimism comes as the state has shifted its vaccine distribution strategy. Until now, the state had sent most of the vaccine directly to county health departments, which administered it through public flu clinics on a first-come, first-served basis. Los Angeles County is about to be allocated 290,000 new doses, which state officials will deliver directly to doctors.

Doctors with patients at risk -- the elderly, pregnant women and those with weak immune systems -- can order the vaccine from a county-run website. Then, patients in need can make appointments with their doctor and get their shots.

The shift should make it easier to get shots. Up to now, patients have had to wait in long lines outside health clinics and drugstores.

In a sign that the panic over the shortage is fading, several Los Angeles County-run clinics have had more vaccine than people needing it the last few weekends.

Crowds were heavy in the morning during flu clinics Nov. 13, but thinned by afternoon. Clinics last Saturday drew a steadier crowd throughout the day, said county Public Health Director Jonathan Fielding.

Fielding and other health officials have been most concerned about the flu virus spreading in nursing homes, because of the concentration of frail and elderly people, who have the greatest risk of serious illness. Some nursing home residents have trouble moving around and cannot get to the flu clinics.

So in addition to the clinics, officials in recent months have made vaccinating those people a priority.

Orange County officials said they had surveyed nursing homes to determine how many residents needed shots, and were in the process of providing the vaccine.

San Bernardino County officials said they had also begun vaccinations at nursing homes.

In Riverside County, health workers completed one round of nursing-home vaccinations and were checking to see if there were any new patients who needed them.

In Los Angeles County, Garden Crest Convalescent Home received 90 doses of vaccine Nov. 8. Elderly residents of the Silver Lake facility had worried they might not get the shots at all this year, so it was a relief to finally have the vaccine, said nursing director Lorraine Perkins.

“It was like being Florence Nightingale again,” Perkins said. “There are still some doctors who can’t get it, but the state came through for us.”

Residents of the Country Villa Wilshire Nursing Center started getting their shots last week, said administrator Lucy Khachoyan. Los Angeles County health officials delivered about 80 doses to the Hollywood-area facility, she said.

“Everything’s under control. I’m very happy,” she said. “It seemed like there was a commotion throughout the nation and everyone panicked. But we’re OK.”

The nation’s supply was cut in half after British regulators suspended the license of a pharmaceutical plant in Liverpool because of manufacturing problems and possible contam- ination.

The plant, which makes the flu vaccine for Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., had been expected to produce 46 million doses for the U.S. market. The federal government intends to distribute the remaining 22.4 million doses of vaccine it secured from the other major vaccine manufacturer, French-based Aventis Pasteur, to state officials.

But even with the extra vaccine, officials said a shortage remained.

In a move to alleviate it, California health officials announced Monday that they were relaxing restrictions they had placed on the sale of the nasal inhalant FluMist. Because of the vaccine shortage, the state had prohibited anyone but healthcare workers from receiving the medicine, which is considered an alternative to the vaccine.

Now, healthy people ages 5 through 49 can buy the medicine over the counter at pharmacies. Locations can be found by calling (877) FLUMIST or visiting www.findfluvaccine.org.

FluMist is a mild form of flu virus that patients inhale so that they can develop antibodies to help defeat a current strain of influenza. Because the person contracts the flu, the inhalant is not suitable for unhealthy patients, the young and the elderly, medical officials say.

Some in the healthcare community have expressed concern that healthy people vaccinated with FluMist could infect those with weakened immune systems. But most doctors and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed the drug safe because the flu strain in it was very weak. The CDC recommends that users of FluMist avoid contact with people who have greatly weakened immune systems, either from disease or medical treatment such as chemotherapy.

“I would really recommend FluMist if a person is healthy,” said Ronald Bangasser, a San Bernardino County physician who also heads the California Adult Immunization Coalition. “It’s fabulous. The misconceptions about it have been debunked.”

Fielding said there had been sporadic reports of influenza in Los Angeles County, but not enough to determine how severe the flu season would be.

He said the new system of distributing directly to doctors would allow officials to get the vaccine out to a larger group of people, including those who might not have been able to get to a flu clinic.

Some hospitals have expressed concern that a severe flu season could overwhelm emergency rooms. But that has not happened yet.

“We’re lucky our hospitals are not reporting any real volume in terms of flu-like conditions,” said Jim Lott, spokesman for the Hospital Assn. of Southern California. “It’s still early in the season. We can get ahead of this thing and nip it in the bud. This new shipment is terrific and timely.”