A shortage of flu vaccine is giving cause for concern, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent.
Normally at this time of year major publicity campaigns urging groups such as the elderly and those of all ages with weak immune systems or respiratory problems to get the flu vaccine would be well underway. In the Republic the campaign has yet to begin. The reason is simple. There is no point urging the public to visit their GP for their annual flu jab if family doctors have no supplies of the vaccine.
Some 200,000 doses, less than half of the amount required, were distributed to GPs last month but in several instances these stocks have now been used up. Doctors are waiting for their stocks to be replenished. The present scarcity isn't just affecting the Republic. The US is a lot worse off.
The cause can be traced back to a plant owned by the Chiron Corporation in Liverpool, where millions of doses of flu vaccine were to be produced for the 2004/2005 flu season. Most of its produce was destined for the US but problems in the manufacturing process, related to sterility, resulted in its manufacturing licence being suspended for three months by the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency in the UK earlier this week. This means the plant cannot meet any orders for flu vaccine this winter and some 48 million doses of flu vaccine it shipped to the US have had to be quarantined. A World Health Organisation spokeswoman yesterday said that it takes six months to make the vaccine so there is no question of other pharmaceutical companies being able to make up the shortfall.
The 200,000 doses of the vaccine distributed in the Republic last month came from Chiron, but from its plant in Italy, where there were no difficulties.
The Department of Health said on Tuesday that a further 89,000 doses were now being distributed and it expected a delivery of another 103,680 doses on Thursday - which have since arrived. It has also been promised another 200,000 doses by the end of this month. It sourced the vaccine from other manufacturers including GlaxoSmithKline and Solvay. Our national demand is for 530,000 doses.
Dr Joan Gilvarry, director of human medicines with the Irish Medicines Board, said Ireland was very lucky to secure supplies. "There is going to be a worldwide shortage because 48 million doses went to the States which are now quarantined," she said.
Last year the first cases of flu in the Republic were reported in early September. Yesterday the National Disease Surveillance Centre said it was able to confirm flu had arrived again, with the first case of the season having just been identified by the national Virus Reference Laboratory. It urged people in "at risk" groups to get vaccinated.
Dr Martin Daly, who practices in Ballygar, Co Galway, said the confirmation of the first case this season at a time when GPs had little or no flu vaccine and when large numbers of the "at risk" population hadn't been immunised was "very worrying".
"There could be a risk of increased mortality in that group," he said. Last year there were two influenza-associated deaths in Irish children.
Dr Daly said he hadn't received any flu vaccine for his surgery to date and had been told by the Western Health Board not to expect a supply for another week. Many patients were getting concerned, he said.
Shortages in the US have resulted in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta asking people not in "at risk" groups to forego or defer vaccination.
All experts agree that a global flu pandemic is overdue but the WHO spokeswoman stressed the shortage of vaccine would not precipitate it. "It would only be possible to create a vaccine for a pandemic strain of influenza when we knew that strain," she added.