Swine flu vaccine production is taking longer than expected, delaying the biggest US influenza prevention program just as disease rates reached their highest level, US health officials reported.
The delays will have “a substantial impact” on state schedules for inoculation as deaths including 11 children in the past week rise above epidemic levels, Anne Schuchat, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said today on a conference call.
There were 11.4 million doses available as of October 14th, while previous estimates from the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Service called for as many as 50 million vaccines available for shipping by the end of this week.
Swine flu is now widespread in 41 states compared with 37 reported last week, and for the first time mortality rates have surpassed the threshold for an epidemic, Ms Schuchat said. “It is very difficult to predict how many doses we will have in the weeks ahead,” Ms Schuchat added.
“More vaccine is becoming available regularly.” So far 86 children have died from swine flu, more than the paediatric toll for a typical year of influenza, Ms Schuchat said. Forty-three Americans have died since August 30th from the flu, also known as H1N1.
“These are very sobering statistics,” Ms Schuchat said. Seasonal flu kills 46 to 88 children a year, mostly in the winter months, she said. Flu rates typically peak in the US in February.
States had ordered 8 million doses as of October 14th, the CDC said. The first doses reached US doctors beginning October 6th.
The country’s biggest influenza prevention program is aimed at curbing the earliest flu season in at least four decades.
Reuters