Flu vaccines still on hold

The IU Health Center has still not received its full influenza shot vaccinations shipment after two and a half months of delay, forcing it to cancel all flu clinics scheduled to take place this past week and next.\nThe Health Center hopes its larger supply will arrive next week, and they will set up the clinics finals week, said Dr. Hugh Jessop, Health Center director.\nFor students who have asthma or other respiratory problems, the Health Center does have a limited supply of the vaccine, and these students would be considered a priority and could receive a shot now, Jessop said. They should call the Health Center at 855-7688 to schedule an appointment.\nVaccine manufacturers had told the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control to expect delays in flu vaccine shipments this year, according to the CDC's Web site at www.cdc.gov. But few anticipated this long a wait.\nThe Health Center was originally set to receive its vaccination doses from the pharmaceutical company around Oct. 12. The clinics would be held sometime after because October and November are the best times to get flu shots, according to the Health Center's Web site at www.indiana.edu/~health. \nBut it takes adults up to two weeks to develop antibodies against viruses, said Ruth Ann Cooper, clinical director of employee health services at Bloomington Hospital, and flu season begins in December/January. But Jessop assured the flu shot will still be beneficial if given in December.\nThe pharmaceutical companies have had to prioritize who receives the shots, because of a national shortage, and they are already catching up with this demand.\n"They've been really slow getting the vaccine out -- there's no question about it," Jessop said. "And haven't been able to get any information from the company about when they'll be shipping it out."\nA limited yield of the vaccine component and manufacturing issues are responsible for the shortage. The flu vaccine is composed of three sub-viruses, and one of the type A viruses was slower growing than anticipated this year, and pharmaceutical companies had to wait, Cooper said.\n"Our (Bloomington Hospital's) initial order of 10,000 doses was cut to 8,500, but we were fortunate in even getting that amount," Cooper said. But she wanted students and faculty to know that vaccines are available at Prompt Care East or West.\nThe manufacturing problems stem from hold-ups in the process for developing the vaccine. Nancy Macklin, director of nursing at the Health Center said each year the CDC researches and predicts which strains of influenza will be the season's most serious. They then recommend to pharmaceutical companies what they think the year's most dangerous strains will be. The pharmaceutical companies are responsible for developing immunization shots that will protect people from these particular strains.\nThis year, the CDC originally found three strains of the virus. But late in the process, it noticed another strain of the virus was appearing in some parts of the country. It had to examine the other virus strain and relay this information to pharmaceutical companies who had to manufacture a new vaccine.\n"It's really been a problem. We're having a hard time because the supplies aren't coming through," Jessop said. "We're all very disappointed"