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WILL THERE BE ENOUGH? HEALTH OFFICIALS READY FOR ARRIVAL OF FLU SHOTS

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, October 21, 2005 11:35 PM CDT

Health officials aren’t expecting a shortage of flu vaccine this year like last flu season, but Pine Bluff clinics have yet to obtain all their shipments of the vaccine.

“We have not received it yet,” said Terri Jackson, health district manager at the Jefferson County Health Department.

Jackson said the health department won’t start administering flu shots until the vaccine order arrives in about two weeks.

However, a shortage hasn’t been announced for this year, she said.

“We do not, at this point, expect a shortage,” said Lisa Rowland, a spokeswoman for Jefferson Regional Medical Center.

The area hospital runs Healthcare Plus, which administers flu shots to patients.

Healthcare Plus and the hospital’s other clinics should also receive their first influenza vaccines in two weeks, she said.

Rowland said it’s usual for the clinics to begin receiving the shipments late in the year.

“At this point they’re anticipating the shipment to arrive on Nov. 1,” she said.

However, the short supply at a center does have one health worker worried.

“They say it isn’t a shortage but it’s very limited supply,” said Alice Pridgeon, coordinator of nursing services at Jefferson Comprehensive Care Center.

Pridgeon said 100 doses of the influenza vaccine were divided among the center’s seven clinics already.

“I don’t know why there’s a limited supply,” Pridgeon said.

The low stockpile is not normal for the care center, which normally has its flu shot clinic by now, she said.

Jefferson Comprehensive Care Center orders its supplies from health-care warehouses that specially cater to center clinics.

The center should receive another shipment of 100 or more doses “in a week or so,” she said.

Meanwhile, Pridgeon said the care center is rationing flu shots “only to a selected few” because of the limited amount.

Until those deliveries arrive, the rest of fall could appear to be a redux of last flu season when the shots were limited to children and the elderly.

Rowland said Healthcare Plus won’t know if its doses will need to be rationed until it receives its first shipment.

Last year’s shortage came after Chiron Corp. had to halt production of the flu vaccine after it’s license to manufacture it was suspended by the United Kingdom because of problems at the company’s Liverpool factory.

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