I found this posted on the Albertsons/Savon website regarding flu vacinations this year in the USA, and how priorities should be set. It's from WebMD originally, dated September 14, 2005, copyright WebMD:
CDC Prioritizes Flu Shots Again
Temporary Measure Targets High-Risk Groups, Including Katrina Evacuees
By Todd Zwillich
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario
on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Sept. 14, 2005 - Federal health officials are once again putting high-risk groups first in line for flu vaccinations this fall, including some evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
They cited uncertainty over vaccine supplies as the reason for the recommendation.
Officials said Wednesday that they want doctors to prioritize flu shots this fall for persons over 65 years old, those with chronic disease such as lung and heart disease, and young children between 6 and 23 months of age. Hurricane Katrina evacuees older than 6 months now living in crowded conditions such as shelters, where lung diseases like influenza easily spread, also fall into this category. These groups are at highest risk of complicated illnesses if infected by the flu, which hospitalizes more than 200,000 Americans and kills 36,000 each year.
Health care workers and older children with chronic diseases including asthma are also able to get vaccinations first under the recommendations. Officials stressed that the advice was voluntary but urged doctors and patients to abide by their planning.
The recommendations are to remain in effect until Oct. 24, after which all adults will be eligible for flu vaccinations, they say.
Similar priority groups were favored last year when half of the U.S. flu shot supply was lost because officials in Britain suspended the license of a vaccine plant. Authorities say they don't expect similar shortages this year but that the priority groups are being used as a safeguard while vaccine supplies remain uncertain.
Up to 180 million Americans are included in the high-risk groups, though only a fraction are expected to demand vaccinations. Public health officials remain unsure how many doses will be available in the U.S. this year.
"We can never be 100% certain about how many doses we're going to have," Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, told reporters.
"I think it's a prudent approach given the uncertainty of supplies," she said in a later interview.
Counting Doses
Vaccine manufacturer Sanofi-Pasteur is expected to generate some 60 million doses for the U.S. market, while GlaxoSmithKline is expected to provide 8 million doses of a newly approved vaccine.
An inhaled flu vaccine sold by MedImmune will be available to an estimated 3 million healthy child and nonelderly adult patients. This vaccine can be given at any time for vaccination of nonpregnant healthy people aged 5-49, including most health care personnel, other people in close contact with groups at high risk for influenza-related complications, and others desiring protection against influenza.
But it is Chiron Corp., the company behind last year's shortages, that remains the uncertainty for U.S. officials. FDA officials have said that they are encouraged by steps the company has taken to correct sanitation problems that led to last year's plant shutdown. Chiron Corp. projects production of 18 million to 26 million doses of the flu vaccine.
If all goes well, the company's production could drive U.S. supplies as high as 97 million doses.
Still, millions of the company's vaccine doses have not yet undergone sterility testing that will prove whether they are fit for the U.S. market. Officials say they are not yet counting on supplies from the company.
"We're not making any firm statements until the tests are done and those lots are released," Gerberding said.
Officials and experts urged patients in priority groups or their caregivers to make early appointments with doctors or clinics for flu shots, which usually become widely available around the first week of October. According to the CDC, given the uncertainties in doses and distribution, CDC recommends that the following priority groups receive the flu vaccine until Oct. 24:
People aged 65 or older with chronic medical conditions
Residents of long-term care facilities
People aged 2-64 with chronic medical conditions
People aged 65 or older without chronic medical conditions
Children aged 6-23 months
Pregnant women
Health care personnel who provide direct patient care
Household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children aged 6 months or less
Last year marked the first time authorities recommended priority vaccination of babies 6 to 23 months old. Despite exhaustive media coverage, only 48% of those children received the vaccine.
"That means that 52% of them did not get the flu vaccine. That's a problem," says Henry O. Bernstein, DO, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics board of trustees.
Bernstein also cited as "dismal" the 38% vaccination rate in children over 2 with chronic diseases.
Also low was the vaccination rate in doctors, nurses, and other health workers, which experts consider key to stemming the spread of flu in hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics. Barely over one-third of health workers got flu shots last year despite pleas from public health authorities that they do so.
"Every single doctor and nurse in America needs to make getting vaccinated a priority," says Ardis D. Hoven, MD, a trustee of the American Medical Association.
