Lone Struggle of Poor Pharma...Get Some Kleenex Ready

[Sheri Nakken]

(see? this whole "shortage" thing is just another prearranged stunt
to create false sense of "urgency" and push for more $$ for pharma - they
are continually trying to get government to fund them)

http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reute ... 6_373.html

Flu Shot Shortage Highlights Lone U.S. Struggle

Oct. 6, 2004 — By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials turned to a back-up plan
for flu season on Wednesday, working to redistribute doses of vaccine
after losing half the anticipated supply.

Just as a coordinated influenza vaccination campaign got under way,
Chiron Corp. issued a surprise announcement on Tuesday that British
regulators had taken away their license for the vaccine after finding
contamination at the company's Liverpool vaccine plant.

That meant 48 million doses will likely be destroyed -- a huge hole
in the expected 100 million-dose U.S. supply just as flu season,
which typically starts in October or November, starts.

After last year's unusually early flu season made headlines, vaccine
officials had hoped that the normally unenthusiastic U.S. population
might actually step up and get vaccinated in large numbers.

Now these officials will have to cajole vaccine providers into
sharing their stashes, and convince the U.S. public to save vaccine
for those who need it most.

"We are, in essence, relying on the voluntary cooperation of those
with vaccine to do a couple of things. One is to ensure they are
using vaccine in a way limited to the high-risk population," said
Patrick Libbey, executive director of the National Association of
County and City Health Officials.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that
only high-risk people should be getting the flu vaccine and that
others should wait. Those in the high-risk group include babies aged
6 months to 23 months, people over 65, pregnant women and people with
chronic diseases.

MONTHS TO MANUFACTURE

Influenza vaccine takes months to manufacture and has to be made
fresh every year based on circulating strains.

Providers such as doctors' offices, public health clinics, stores and
employers will have ordered their vaccine supplies months in advance
from distributors who get it from manufacturers. The government has
little or no control over this.

"Also we will rely on the good judgment and, in a sense, the good
citizenship of the public," Libbey said in a telephone interview

Doctors can turn to antiviral drugs, such as Roche's Tamiflu,
amantadine, rimantadine and zanamivir, sold by GlaxoSmithKline under
the brand name Relenza. But they are no substitute for vaccination
against a disease that kills 36,000 Americans in an average year.

None of this is new, pointed out Dr. Martin Myers, Executive Director
of the National Network for Immunization Information.

"For instance, in the past five years, the United States has
experienced shortages of influenza, diphtheria-tetanus-acellular
pertussis (DTaP), tetanus and diphtheria, measles-mumps-rubella
(MMR), varicella (chickenpox), and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines,"
Myers said in a statement.

"This is a generic problem with vaccines. We just don't have that
many manufacturers out there," added Dr. Arnold Monto, an
epidemiologst and bioterrorism expert at the University of Michigan
School of Public Health.

Aventis is the only other maker of influenza shots for the U.S.
market, and will supply 54 million doses, while MedImmune has just 1
million to 2 million doses of its new nasal vaccine called FluMist.

"There is not a great incentive for drug companies to get involved in
vaccines because, A, it's not a big profit, B, it's a situation that
has great risks," said Dr. Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute
of Allerguy and Infectious Diseases.

In August 2003 the Institute of Medicine, an independent body that
advises the government, issued a report on the shortage of vaccine
makers saying the federal government should force all insurers to pay
for vaccinations and offer subsidies to help pay for them.
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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
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