Shortage of Flu Vaccine Ends; County Ready to Give Shots

After several agonizing delays, the Orange County Health Care Agency is finally receiving the rest of its state-issued flu vaccine and is resuming free clinics for the elderly and other frail residents turned away during a shortage.

“Our clinics are open. We’re just going to use [the vaccine] up until it’s all gone,” said Mary Wright, immunization coordinator for the county.

Earlier this month, blaming nationwide distribution problems, health officials announced the cancellation of 100 flu shot clinics because they had received only a third of their annual order of 300,000 doses from the state Department of Health Services.

But the state agency finally received the rest of its order last week and reported Wednesday that counties around the state, including Orange County, could expect to receive the remainder of their orders by early next week.

With a sigh of relief and a bit of guarded optimism, state health officials say new shipments should give social service workers enough time to protect vulnerable people from the virus--for this year, at least.

Historically, flu season arrives in California at the end of December. Because the vaccine takes about 10 days to take effect, the shots will need to be administered quickly. Hundreds of clinics statewide had to be canceled after delays in shipments. And there are no guarantees the same delays won’t crop up again next year.

“We were on pins and needles trying to get it all in and making sure the counties got it on time. We’re happy it didn’t come to a crisis,” said Norma Arceo, a state health department spokeswoman.

Clinics in Orange County have been rescheduled as fresh supplies trickle in. On Tuesday, a shipment of 91,000 doses arrived. And the state has promised to deliver the county’s final 5,150 doses by Monday.

Nationwide, vaccine deliveries were delayed because of manufacturing problems. Some leading producers reported having trouble growing a common strain of the virus. Others got late starts because of quality-control issues.

In California, the state health department ordered 700,000 doses for distribution to county health agencies that serve the elderly, poor and sick. That order does not include doses for private physicians, pharmacies and hospitals, which provide 90% of all flu shots in the state.

With supplies strained for both public and private providers, social service workers in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura, Imperial and San Francisco counties were forced to cancel or curtail free vaccination clinics.

Los Angeles County public health offices, which had to cancel a few dozen of 165 clinics this month, received about 20,000 doses Tuesday, the last of their full order of 114,090 doses.

Fortunately, health officials say, they have seen no sign of an early arrival of flu season, and some of the largest school districts and hospitals have not seen any evidence of an outbreak.

“We’re not seeing anything atypical,” said Dennis Roberson, executive director of special education compliance and health services for the 45,000-student Capistrano Unified School District.

“I haven’t gotten the sense that we’ve been overwhelmed in our emergency room yet,” said Kim Pine, spokeswoman for the UCI Medical Center in Orange. “I don’t think we’ll see that until December and January. That’s when it starts picking up.”

Meanwhile, state health officials have not taken any formal steps to prevent the same snafus next year, Arceo said, because they cannot regulate how the vaccine is distributed.

“It’s really not in our hands,” Arceo said, adding that it is up to lawmakers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change the distribution system.

“Next year, I don’t know how it’s going to work out. But it’s all done this year,” Arceo said. “We just hope we don’t have to go through this again.”