[PROVE Note: This recent snafu is brought to you by those
who profess to
know better for your child
than you as their parent - but have no fear -
they are now receiving
refrigerator training!
Maybe the doctor who said
"there's no harm in giving someone a booster who
already has an effective
vaccine" should talk to some of our members who are
doctors and health care
professionals who have been harmed by the extra
boosters of Hepatitis B
shots they were forced to take when blood tests
showed they didn't respond
to the first round.
At least now they are
admitting that reactions occur.
Progress.]
Clinics' vaccines feared
useless
Storage problems may mean
6,000 shots in Travis were ineffective
By Jonathan Osborne
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/tuesday/news_2.html
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
When state inspectors
strolled through Travis County's health clinics
earlier this year, they
noted on their report that some refrigerators used
to store vaccine were way
too cold -- a problem that could render some shots
useless.
As a result, county and city
health officials launched a review of their 29
public clinics, and on
Monday, they announced that the problem was far worse
than that routine February
inspection had revealed.
Because of faulty
thermometers and a failure to follow proper handling
procedures, as many as 1,500
Travis County children and adults have received
potentially ineffective
vaccinations for polio, hepatitis B, tetanus,
diphtheria and whooping
cough.
Those people received
roughly 6,000 bad shots as long ago as June 2000 at
two East Austin clinics and
one rural clinic in Jonestown.
Health officials say no
children were harmed by receiving futile vaccines
and that it is not a medical
emergency: The recent pertussis, or whooping
cough, epidemic appears to
be over, and there is currently no outbreak of
the other diseases.
However, David Lurie,
director of the Austin/Travis County Health and Human
Services Department, said his
staff now must sort through their records and
determine who received a
questionable vaccine because they will likely need
a second dose.
Letters instructing parents
of their options should start popping up in
mailboxes soon. Health
officials also plan to find any patients who have
moved out of the area.
Because inoculations carry
certain risks, such as adverse side effects,
Lurie said his staff will
evaluate each patient to determine whether another
shot is necessary.
"We have the time to
work this through," he said. However, Lurie has not yet
figured how much the errors
will cost.
The state inspection
reports, which the American-Statesman obtained Friday,
are routine and rarely lead
to alerts to parents or the news conference
called Monday morning.
Dr. James Morgan, a regional
director for the Texas Department of Health,
said temperature problems
are not uncommon in clinics around the state,
though "it's not
something anyone gets really upset about."
"We run across this
every once in awhile," Morgan said. "It's something we
want to make sure doesn't
happen again."
The county and city
administer roughly 125,000 vaccines each year.
At the three clinics where
the refrigerator knobs were turned up too high,
officials immediately threw
away the affected vaccines once the problem was
discovered.
And then it was a matter of
figuring out how long the problem had festered.
They learned that
ineffective vaccines may have been doled out at the East
Austin Women, Infants and Children
Clinic from June 2000 through February
2002.
At the East Austin Primary
Care Clinic, in the same Comal Street building,
questionable shots were
given from January 2001 through January 2002. And at
the Northwest Rural Primary
Care Clinic in Jonestown, bad vaccines were
administered only in
December.
Lurie said part of the
problem was faulty equipment, such as inaccurate
thermometers. But staff
members who failed to properly track the
temperatures in the
refrigerators were also to blame, though he wouldn't say
whether any workers had lost
their job over the error.
"It's safe to say there
have been some personnel actions, and we're going to
be reviewing other
actions," he said.
In the meantime, Lurie said
officials have retrained all staff members and
reviewed storage procedures.
Officials also have met with the pharmaceutical
companies that make each
vaccine to try to determine how freezing affects
the vaccines' shelf lives.
Some who received once-frozen
vaccines still may have been adequately
immunized, he said.
As far as the inoculation
process goes, "there's no harm in giving someone a
booster who already has an
effective vaccine," said Dr. Lisa Glenn, a
medical director for the
city's primary care department.
However, Morgan said, there
is a general risk associated with vaccines.
"Even though most
vaccines are considered to be safe, there's still a
certain percentage of people
who have an adverse reaction," Morgan said.
"You just don't want to
take the risk unless you have to."
josborne@statesman.com;
445-3621
Vaccines in doubt
Clinics affected
* East Austin Primary Care
Clinic: January 2001 to January 2002.
* East Austin WIC Clinic:
June 2000 to February 2002.
* Northwest Rural Primary
Care Clinic (Jonestown): December 2001 to January
2002.
Vaccines questioned
Tetanus (adults) Tetanus
(children)
DTaP (Diphtheria, tetanus
and pertussis)
Polio injectable Hepatitis B
For help
You can call the hot line
number at: 972-5888
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PROVE(Parents Requesting
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(email)
http://vaccineinfo.net/ (web
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