General practitioners in the Republic continue to report vaccine shortages amid indications that a worldwide supply problem may be partly to blame.
One doctor in Wexford told The Irish Times that he had been out of flu vaccine for over 10 days. "One elderly lady was driven 15 miles specifically to have a flu shot, but we had to turn her away," he said.
The Wexford GP criticised the South-Eastern Health Board for not supplying enough influenza and pneumococcal vaccines. He had received flu vaccine equivalent to only 80 per cent of his over-65 medical card population. In addition, he estimated that he had received only 5 per cent of his pneumococcal vaccine needs.
An SEHB spokeswoman said that the board had initially ordered 46,000 flu vaccines and had an option on a further 5,000 doses. She estimated that GPs were supplied with vaccines equivalent to 95 per cent of the over-65s in each practice.
The Western Health Board has reported problems in obtaining flu vaccine from suppliers. It has had to restrict the vaccines given to doctors to batches of 10 to 15, according to a spokeswoman. The WHB initially ordered 44,610 vaccines, based on a predicted 65 per cent uptake among its target population.
Dr Martin Daly, a Co Galway GP, also criticised the supply of pneumococcal vaccine. He received the first batch of this vaccine only last week and has been told no more will be available until the end of November.
The international vaccine shortage was predicted by the US Food and Drug Administration. "In most years, the majority of flu vaccine is available by October. However, due to a variety of factors in 2000/01, the majority of flu vaccine will not become available until considerably later, in November/December," the FDA stated. It reported that manufacturing difficulties over the summer were to blame.
The Republic's influenza and pneumococcal vaccination campaign was launched on September 13th. There were no indications at that time of potential vaccine shortages affecting the national campaign.