Flu vaccine is plentiful but pricier, officials say
By KATHY MELLOTT,
TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT BEDFORD BUREAU
September
29, 2002
BEDFORD – Get in line, roll up your shirtsleeve and close your eyes. Flu
season is fast approaching and it’s time to get that shot.
And unlike the past two years, when there were marked delays in getting the
vaccine from the manufacturers to doctors and hospitals, no shortages are
expected.
But the public should expect to cough up a little more. The cost of the
vaccine has increased by 30 percent, said Beth Hullihen, infection control
coordinator at UPMC Bedford Memorial.
She predicted that, in most doctors’ offices and similar settings, residents
can expect to pay about $20 a shot, up from the $10 and $15 of past years.
UPMC Bedford will provide shots for $10.
Doses began arriving last week, said representatives of Memorial Medical
Center and UPMC Lee Regional in Johnstown, Somerset Community Hospital and
Bedford Memorial.
“We have always basically just charged what it costs us, factoring in our
manpower – it’s a community service,” Hullihen said.
The same is true for Memorial Medical Center where Chris Good, director of
pharmacy, agreed the shots are a public service.
“It’s a PR thing, getting the word out to enough people, we’re preventing
some hospitalizations,” he said in a telephone interview.
Cost will be a factor for some, said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the
state Department of Health, but there will be sufficient vaccine to go
around.
“Eighty percent of all of the vaccine will be delivered by the end of the
month. The rest will be delivered by the beginning of November,” McGarvey
said in a telephone interview from his Harrisburg office.
During the next month, the three manufacturers of influenza vaccine – two in
the United States and one in Great Britain – will ship out an estimated 84
million vaccine doses nationwide, said Dr. Walter Orenstein of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
But unlike in the past, this year someone from the Drug Enforcement
Administration may be looking over the shoulders of those administering the
vaccine.
“Last year there was a lot of stockpiling. They came out too early with
warnings about shortages,” Good said.
The result was price gouging by some who had an adequate supply of the
vaccine with prices three to four times the cost from the manufacturer.
“They developed a way of tagging the vaccine and (the DEA) will have agents
out in the field reporting back where it is showing up,” he said in a
telephone interview.
The flu strains identified by health officials are from the “fairly regular
groups,” McGarvey said. They are: A-Moscow; A-New Caledonia and B-Hong Kong.
Historically, the flu originates in the Orient each year and goes around the
globe, said Good.
Predictions on severity of the season are hard to find.
“They aren’t expecting it to be a bad flu season,” Good said in a telephone
interview.
The key element will be weather. Colder temperatures make vulnerable
patients more susceptible and more likely to contract influenza, he said.
But getting a flu shot matters, especially for those over age 50 or people
with compromised immune systems, respiratory problems or chronic medical
conditions, McGarvey said.
“Each year 3,000 to 4,000 Pennsylvanians die due to flu, which often leads
to pneumonia,” he said.
The federally funded CDC, in its annual push for people in high-risk
categories to get their flu shots, is recommending young children be
included on the list.
Flu shots should be given to all children from the ages of 6 months to 2
years because, Orenstein told The Associated Press, flu sends as many young
children to the hospital as older people.
“This is the first time they’re recommending it for everyone in that younger
age group,” McGarvey told The Tribune-Democrat.
Good recommends that parents consult their child’s doctor or the family’s
primary care provider. Unlike the adult vaccine, flu shots for young
children must be administered in two doses, a month apart.
Flu shot clinics for seniors and the medically underserved will be set up
around the region during the next month.
The CDC is suggesting seniors and those most at risk get their shots as soon
as they become available and healthy people wait until November to prevent a
run on vaccine supplies.
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS
OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"
