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Vaccinations suspended
(New
Haven-WTNH, Feb. 14, 2002 5:03 PM) _ A nationwide vaccine shortage
means Connecticut's children won't get all their shots before they
start day care. The state has temporarily suspended the vaccination regulations
for kids and they don't know when things will get back to normal.
Several
companies that make common vaccines have either stopped or
temporarily suspended production.It includes the vaccine kids get for
diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, the one for chicken pox, and
the shot that prevents meningitis and pneumonia, as well as the adult
tetanus booster shot. The shortage forced Connecticut to change the
rules for kids heading to day care.
At
Little White House Day Care in Milford, 120 kids come through the
door every day. Director Judy Drapp says she has enough to worry
about without keeping track of what kids have had what shots.
"It
takes more time to keep track of the records and who has what - and
certainly those that expose, we have to make sure we let those
parents know if they've been exposed to chicken pox, for instance.
So, it makes our job a little bit more difficult."
Difficult,
but she still needs to keep track. Before they could be allowed into
day care, toddlers used to need a dose of varicella - a vaccine
against chicken pox and a fourth booster for diphtheria, tetanus and
whooping cough. But right now, there's a nationwide shortage of both,
and two other vaccines.
"With
the tetanus diphtheria, it actually was due to one of the
manufacturers discontinued making the product, so only one
manufacturer is making it - so they couldn't keep up with the demand,"
Lee Ann Thayer of Yale New Haven Hospital said.
Production
of the chicken pox vaccine was halted for plant maintenance.
"It's
curious as to why 4 of the 8 vaccines we give on a regular basis have
had some problem in production, which we have never seen before in
medicine," said Dr. Jeanne Marconi, Academy of Pediatricians.
It
means pediatricians have to save what vaccine they have for patients
who need it most, and healthy kids have to do without.
"The
chicken pox is more of an issue because there have been no previous
vaccines for that so now we're exposing all these young children to
chicken pox - and chicken pox still kills several hundred children a
year in this country," Dr. Marconi said.
The
worst thing is there are plenty of excuses, but nobody's really sure
how we ended up so short of these vaccines. Plenty of government
agencies are now investigating.
Nobody
knows when the shortage will end. If it lasts through the summer, the
state will have to think about changing regulations for schools as well.
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