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Maryland may receive just half its expected supply of the swine flu vaccine for October, state health officials said Monday as they scrambled, along with hospitals and other providers, to confront a projected shortfall.
As H1N1-related hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise, people have flocked to health department clinics to get inoculated, waiting in lines that stretched several hours. Meanwhile, in Baltimore County, officials have canceled several clinics because of a lack of vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially said Maryland could expect about 1 million doses of the vaccine by the end of this month, said John M. Colmers, state health secretary. Because of a delay in production on the federal level, they now expect that figure to be 530,000.
"People are saying to us 'Where is it? Where is it?,' and we're saying the same thing up the chain," he said. "We would love to get this out as quickly as possible."
Colmers said health officials are discussing possibly changing their plans for distributing the vaccine to some 3,000 hospitals, doctors' offices, clinics and other health care providers as they struggle with limited supplies.
It has been two weeks since the vaccine arrived in Maryland and some hospitals have yet to receive any of it. The few doctors' offices that have received scant shipments say they have been inundated with calls from their patients - and people off the street - eager to get vaccinated. While opinion polls show some public distrust of the vaccine, so far in Maryland, plenty of people are clamoring for it.
Colmers said state officials are doing everything they can to increase supply quickly. Monday, the state ordered 20,000 doses in addition to some 195,300 requested so far.
Colmers said that he doesn't think the shortage will be permanent and that he has been told by federal officials that the state should expect to reach the 1 million dose mark by the middle of November. But, he cautioned: "I can't say with absolute certainly if the numbers that we have now aren't going to change again."
"We have ordered every drop of vaccine that we could," Colmers said. "Over the last two weeks we have seen the estimates coming to Maryland have been reduced twice. We are not alone in this regard; we are feeling the same frustration as many states are. Production is continuing - it doesn't mean that we won't be getting it. It's that the schedule has been pushed back for us and everyone."
For a huge health care system such as Johns Hopkins, the shortage is felt acutely. The Hopkins health system, which includes hospitals, clinics and the university, has 50,000 people to vaccinate, not including patients or affiliated physicians who disseminate some 50,000 doses in the community, said Dr. Gabe D. Kelen, director of Hopkins' Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response.
So far the health system has received 7,000 to 8,000 doses of the vaccine. It expected between 10,000 and 15,000. "This is pretty bare-bones," said Kelen. "It's extremely challenging."
Officials have been forced to be creative with vaccine distribution. For instance, Hopkins Hospital has had to share vaccine supply with its affiliate, Howard County General Hospital, which has yet to receive its own shipment, Kelen said.
Because they don't have enough vaccine to begin inoculating all vulnerable groups, Hopkins officials are putting a contingency plan in place, using a tiered system to designate the neediest, starting with health care workers who work in high-risk settings, pregnant patients and hospital staff, children 4 years old and younger and children 18 and younger who have compromised immune systems and underlying health problems.
And yet, said Kelen: "We don't believe we have enough for that group."
The CDC initially said 120 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine would be available to the states by October. Last Friday, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters that figure would be closer to between 28 million and 30 million. She said the figures change daily and asked that people remain patient as the government carefully rolls out the vaccine to the public, testing for potency, purity and safety.
St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson has not received the 3,100 doses of vaccine for hospital staff and another 2,000 intended for patients that administrators ordered. The one area that has received a shipment - the perinatal center - has burned through its supply.
Dr. Judy Rossiter, director of the perinatal center and head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, said the center received 300 doses of the vaccine last Tuesday and began making it available to its patients. Despite reports that pregnant women have been reluctant to be vaccinated against the flu, more than 80 percent have accepted, Rossiter said.
As H1N1-related hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise, people have flocked to health department clinics to get inoculated, waiting in lines that stretched several hours. Meanwhile, in Baltimore County, officials have canceled several clinics because of a lack of vaccine.
"People are saying to us 'Where is it? Where is it?,' and we're saying the same thing up the chain," he said. "We would love to get this out as quickly as possible."
Colmers said health officials are discussing possibly changing their plans for distributing the vaccine to some 3,000 hospitals, doctors' offices, clinics and other health care providers as they struggle with limited supplies.
It has been two weeks since the vaccine arrived in Maryland and some hospitals have yet to receive any of it. The few doctors' offices that have received scant shipments say they have been inundated with calls from their patients - and people off the street - eager to get vaccinated. While opinion polls show some public distrust of the vaccine, so far in Maryland, plenty of people are clamoring for it.
Colmers said state officials are doing everything they can to increase supply quickly. Monday, the state ordered 20,000 doses in addition to some 195,300 requested so far.
Colmers said that he doesn't think the shortage will be permanent and that he has been told by federal officials that the state should expect to reach the 1 million dose mark by the middle of November. But, he cautioned: "I can't say with absolute certainly if the numbers that we have now aren't going to change again."
"We have ordered every drop of vaccine that we could," Colmers said. "Over the last two weeks we have seen the estimates coming to Maryland have been reduced twice. We are not alone in this regard; we are feeling the same frustration as many states are. Production is continuing - it doesn't mean that we won't be getting it. It's that the schedule has been pushed back for us and everyone."
For a huge health care system such as Johns Hopkins, the shortage is felt acutely. The Hopkins health system, which includes hospitals, clinics and the university, has 50,000 people to vaccinate, not including patients or affiliated physicians who disseminate some 50,000 doses in the community, said Dr. Gabe D. Kelen, director of Hopkins' Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response.
So far the health system has received 7,000 to 8,000 doses of the vaccine. It expected between 10,000 and 15,000. "This is pretty bare-bones," said Kelen. "It's extremely challenging."
Officials have been forced to be creative with vaccine distribution. For instance, Hopkins Hospital has had to share vaccine supply with its affiliate, Howard County General Hospital, which has yet to receive its own shipment, Kelen said.
Because they don't have enough vaccine to begin inoculating all vulnerable groups, Hopkins officials are putting a contingency plan in place, using a tiered system to designate the neediest, starting with health care workers who work in high-risk settings, pregnant patients and hospital staff, children 4 years old and younger and children 18 and younger who have compromised immune systems and underlying health problems.
And yet, said Kelen: "We don't believe we have enough for that group."
The CDC initially said 120 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine would be available to the states by October. Last Friday, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters that figure would be closer to between 28 million and 30 million. She said the figures change daily and asked that people remain patient as the government carefully rolls out the vaccine to the public, testing for potency, purity and safety.
St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson has not received the 3,100 doses of vaccine for hospital staff and another 2,000 intended for patients that administrators ordered. The one area that has received a shipment - the perinatal center - has burned through its supply.
Dr. Judy Rossiter, director of the perinatal center and head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, said the center received 300 doses of the vaccine last Tuesday and began making it available to its patients. Despite reports that pregnant women have been reluctant to be vaccinated against the flu, more than 80 percent have accepted, Rossiter said.
