More Flu Vaccine On Way

The federal government is scrambling to ship 100,000 adult vaccine doses to combat shortages, hoping to head off what could become one of the worst flu outbreaks in years, and 150,000 child vaccines are expected in January.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the adult doses should be ready for distribution this weekend to state health departments, based on population.
The government bought the doses from manufacturer Aventis Pasteur, and H.H.S. Secretary Tommy Thompson says other possibilities are being explored.

Meantime, people have been lining up across the nation, trying to find what has become an ever-more-elusive prize. Many states and cities are holding their dwindling supplies for people most at risk of developing complications, the elderly and the very young.

Some hospitals were discouraging visitors after officials announced the flu had spread to all 50 states.

The number of states with widespread infections nearly doubled to 24 in the past week, and the season has not yet peaked nationally, the CDC said Thursday.

Many schools have shut down. Emergency rooms have been filled with sick children. And doctors' offices have been forced to turn away droves of people seeking flu shots.

Health officials are unsure why the outbreak has hit so early, why it has caused so many problems and why it seems to be so lethal in children.

States are not required to track the number of flu cases, so the exact total is not clear; however, at least 20 children have died nationwide during this outbreak.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin says some of the people who track infectious diseases call the number alarming, but to date there has been little information available about the deaths that would either allay or confirm fears.

CBS News has learned that more than half of the children who died had underlying illness such as asthma, heart disease and diabetes, but no information is being made public about whether or not the children were vaccinated. That information, says Kaledin, would clearly put the deaths in perspective...and answer questions about who's at risk.

The CDC said it is unable to know how many children typically die of the flu each year, making it unclear whether this is in fact a particularly lethal outbreak for youngsters.

But anecdotally, this flu season seems to be worse for children, and the CDC plans to watch flu complications among them closely. Flu and its complications are the sixth-leading cause of death nationally among children age 4 and younger, according to the CDC.

Despite the severity of the early outbreak, health experts are not ready to predict just how bad the flu season will be. The season still may peak as early as December, rather than February, which is the norm.

Many cases are never classified as the flu, but doctors say they are seeing a clear increase this year.

"If it were me, I'd be on the phone to your doctor, calling around to see if you could find some" vaccine, said Dr. Randall Todd, Nevada's epidemiologist.

The nation's two producers of flu shots reported last week that they had shipped their entire supply of about 80 million doses. However, Aventis Pasteur had set aside 250,000 doses at the CDC's request last week when it became clear that shortages might develop. Those are the doses being shipped now.

Manufacturers of tests used to determine if a patient has the flu say the current outbreak has strained their ability to meet demand from hospitals, medical laboratories and doctors' offices.

Jack Kraeutler, president of test kit distributor Meridian Bioscience Inc., said the company is running about a week behind in filling orders.

"I don't think that there's a manufacturer or a health professional who hasn't been overwhelmed with how quickly it's moved," Kraeutler said.

BD Diagnostics Systems, which also manufactures the kits, said it already has received as many orders as the company got last year for the entire flu season. The season, which generally begins in late December and ends in March, started earlier this year.

"We are working around the clock right now, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Michael Meehan, president of BD Diagnostics Systems. "As fast as we can make them, they're being ordered and shipped. There's a lot of testing going on out there."

About two million flu tests are done nationwide during a typical flu season, but that number could be exceeded in this season, Meehan said.

Quidel Corp., which is based in San Diego, has increased its production of flu test kits to 24 hours a day, seven days a week to accommodate the heavy demand, said S. Wayne Kay, president and chief executive officer. He declined to say how many flu tests his company sells.

Also, drug stores and online companies around the country are reporting brisk sales of both over-the-counter remedies and prescription drugs in the past few weeks.

"I'd say this is the most severe year we've seen in quite a number of years," said Ken Chao, pharmacy director for the King Soopers grocery chain.

Drugstore.com reported a 46 percent increase in sales of over-the-counter flu products in the past five weeks, compared with the same period of 2002, said Rasa Perhanian, who oversees such sales.

"Last week alone, I sold 50 percent more product than the week before," she said.

Walgreen Drug Stores and Wal-Mart reported a rise in sales of flu drugs in the past week, but gave no figures.

Among prescription drugs, demand has picked up for Tamiflu - which can prevent or relieve the flu - and for FluMist, a nasal version of the flu vaccine, according to the makers of the medicines. They gave no numbers.

Some stores have reported intermittent shortages of certain products.

Many Americans living along the U-S and Mexican border were traveling to Mexico to buy flu shots after their cities ran out.

Mexican pharmacies don't require prescriptions, and at least one pharmacist in the border city of Tijuana reported a jump in sales of 500 percent.

Bundled in coats and under blankets outside the West Oaks Mall in Ocoee, Fla., near Orlando, 300 to 400 people waited for a chance at the remaining free flu vaccines there, even though the flu is not considered widespread in that state.

In Albany, N.Y., and elsewhere, health departments and doctors' offices have been so swamped with people looking for a flu vaccine some have exhausted their supplies. A hospital in Asheville, N.C., began restricting patient visitors Friday to ward off the flu's spread, and another in Gastonia, N.C., was discouraging visitors.

Worried parents are rushing to find shots even though many clinics are out or about to run out of the vaccine.

"I really was desperate," said Joy Thompson of Valencia, Calif., who found 300 people waiting to get the vaccine at her daughters' pediatrics office and couldn't endure the three-hour line. She later got the vaccine from her mother, a nurse.

Bianka Ortega, receptionist for After Hours Pediatrics in Las Vegas, has been turning away frustrated parents. The office has vaccines left, but they are reserved for poor patients.

Parents have been getting "a little bit irate," she said.

Gerberding said the CDC is recommending doctors give high-risk groups top priority for shots. That means the elderly, children under 2, those with chronic medical conditions, and women in the second and third trimester of pregnancy.

In Colorado, the good news is that the outbreak appears to be on its way out.

"We were certainly inundated with tons of patients" in the last few weeks, said Allison Hamm, spokeswoman for Denver Health Medical Center. "It has certainly slowed down significantly."

One of the hardest hit communities was Malad, Idaho, a town of about 2,000 people near the Utah state line that virtually shut down in the past week because so many people were ill. Church services and Christmas programs were canceled, as was the wrestling match and drill team show. Even Santa had to postpone his visit with the children.

On Thursday, the CDC added Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island and Virginia to the list of states with widespread flu activity. Last week, only Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming were on the list.

Experts aren't sure why the West is so hard hit.

"I don't have an explanation," said Lisa Jackson, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington. "I don't know if that's just a chance thing or what's going on this year."