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No Flu Vaccine Shortage Is Expected This Year

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Times Staff Writer

With four suppliers of flu vaccine this year, health officials said Wednesday that they were expecting delivery of as many as 97 million doses -- enough, they believe, to avoid the shortages that took place last year.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the vaccine was already being provided to Hurricane Katrina evacuees staying in crowded shelters, where flu outbreaks were more likely.

“If there is any population that deserves first access to the vaccine, it is the people who have already endured so much difficulty,” Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the CDC, said at a news conference.

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Sanofi Pasteur, the largest flu vaccine supplier to the United States, has donated 200,000 doses for Hurricane Katrina victims, Gerberding said.

Flu shots also are available for other higher-risk groups, including children from six months to 23 months, people 65 and over, healthcare providers, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions. A nasal-spray vaccine also is available to anyone age 5 to 49.

The CDC has asked doctors to begin providing flu shots to any patient beginning Oct. 24.

Last year, contamination at a Chiron Corp. vaccine factory in Liverpool, England, led to severe shortages. Health officials initially recommended that healthy adults skip the shot until it was assured that higher-risk groups would be covered.

The policy was reversed when it became clear that some of the vaccine would go to waste because of a generally slack demand.

Worries about similar problems this year eased considerably when Food and Drug Administration inspectors recently cleared the Chiron plant for production.

The CDC expects 60 million doses of vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur, as many as 26 million doses from Chiron, 8 million doses from GlaxoSmithKline, and 3 million doses of nasal-spray vaccine from MedImmune Inc.

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“The vaccine supply this year is expected to be very good with over 90 million doses coming online in the weeks ahead,” said Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

On average, 200,000 Americans are hospitalized annually for complications from the flu and 36,000 die, the CDC said.

Ideally, 180 million Americans should be inoculated, but less than half that number are expected to seek a shot.

Gerberding cautioned that estimating overall demand involved guesswork about the severity of the annual flu epidemic.

“We can never predict what the season will look like,” she said.

The 2005 vaccine is designed to protect against three major flu strains. The first two, New Caledonia and Shanghai, were also in last year’s vaccine. Another strain, discovered in California last year and bearing the state’s name, is also included.

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