The Student Activities Board cancelled a flu shot session Monday. SAB Wellness Coordinator Erin Sawyer said since there has been a shortage of vaccinations, the drive will not take place.

According to Steve Allred, nurse practitioner and clinical director of www.getaflushot.com, the flu vaccine is coming slow to market. They have been providing MHCC with flu vaccinations since 1998.

The four main manufacturers of flu vaccines are Chiron, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline and MedImmune.

Allred says that they purchase their stock from Chiroc, Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokeswoman Lola Russell explained one of the issues with distributing the vaccines was the delay of “effort by manufacturers to release vaccine incrementally,” as reported in the Baltimore Sun. What it means is that the supply for flu vaccines cannot be produced so that it could all be ready at once.

The CDC’s approach to this was to vaccinate everybody who is in a priority group, or at “higher risk.” People who fall under this category are 65 years or older, anybody with respiratory, heart, and other chronic conditions, pregnant women, children who are six to 23 months old, health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities.

Another reason flu vaccines are slowly being supplied to health organizations is because of Chiron.

Last year the Food and Drug Administration suspended Chiron’s license to supply the United States with their flu vaccines, Fluviron. On Aug. 25, 2004, during an FDA evaluation at their plant in Liverpool, England, they found that approximately 4.5 million vaccines produced bacterial contaminations.

As a result, Chiron’s license was suspended and they were not allowed to ship their supply to the United States. Chiron is the second largest provider of flu vaccines to the United States, so lack of their flu vaccine stock was the reason for last year’s drought in flu vaccines.

On Oct. 12, the FDA gave the approval to Chiron to ship their stock of flu vaccines to the United States.

“We are pleased that the Chiron Corp. has taken steps to address issues at their facility in Liverpool as they prepare for the upcoming flu season,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman, FDA director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research on the FDA website. “The letter that we issued to them…is a positive development and shows significant progress on their part.”

As reported on www.dailynewscnetral.com, the spokeswoman for Chiron, Alison Marquiss, said that Chiron is sending 1.5 million doses of flu vaccines to the United States. Their objective is to continue shipping until December. Chiron plans to supply the United States with 18 million to 26 million doses of vaccine for the season.

There may be no flu shot drive going on this term, said Sawyer. However, the SAB will be planning a flu shot drive next term when more supplies of flu vaccinations are available. Flu vaccinations are usually taken in the months of October and November.
There is an expectation that there will be 97 million flu vaccines available.