If you’re worried about seasonal influenza and the new swine flu, keep worrying.
Swine flu vaccine will arrive in “dribs and drabs,” said William P. Quinn (pictured), director of New Haven’s department of health.
Quinn gave a flu-preparation update Tuesday night to the Board of Aldermen’s Human Services Committee as part of a pitch for approval to apply for $53,068 from the state to buy conventional swine flu vaccine through July 2010. The committee approved his request.
National shortages of the usual seasonal flu vaccine are also expected. The dual nature of this year’s flu and vaccines is creating mass confusion and complicating efforts to get people protection, Quinn noted.
The H1N1 “swine flu” requires a different vaccine from the seasonal vaccine.
And so far, Connecticut only has a type of swine flu vaccine that cannot be used on the people who need it the most.
The U.S. has ordered 114 million doses of “regular” flu and has received about 70 million, according to drug manufacturers and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Haven will have distributed all of its seasonal vaccines within two weeks, Quinn told the aldermen.
The first city clinic was held Tuesday. Another walk-in vaccine clinic is planned for next Tuesday at the Department of Education building at 54 Meadow St. Seasonal vaccine has also been given to St. Paul’s and Trinity Church on the Green, so that Yale health workers can vaccinate the homeless, Quinn said.
Private doctors and primary care givers also have seasonal vaccine.
Meanwhile, Gov. M. Jody Rell announced that Connecticut will receive 20,000 doses of intranasal H1N1 vaccine.
Rell also announced last month a plan to recruit 1,500 doctors and other health care providers to administer injectable H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available this fall.
The intranasal type of vaccine cannot be used on the high-risk populations that require immunization.
This is because FluMist and other intranasal vaccines are made with weakened, but alive, virus.
The vaccine works by giving the patient an extremely mild case of H1N1 flu. The patient naturtally develops antibodies to the virus.
If this type of vaccine is given to infants or those who care for them, the babies could develop full cases of H1N1 flu. Adult recipients might also inadvertently give the H1N1 flu to the infant.
MedImmune, the maker of FluMist specifically warns against giving the vaccine to patients younger than 24 months in its packaged instructions.
The seasonal influenza vaccine is made from either deactivated, or dead virus, or from inert pieces of virus.
The body’s immune system recognizes the influenza and produces antibodies in response. If the immune system again comes across the flu contained in the vaccine, it will already be armed and resistant.
More standard vaccines are not expected until November.
Meanwhile, New Haven has only a nasal type vaccine against the H1N1 “swine flu.”
Although so far swine flu is less virulent than “ordinary” flu, it has caused great public anxiety because public health officials believe it may yet evolve into a deadly world pandemic.
According to the CDC, vaccine manufacturers such as Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline and CSL Biotherapies, are being slowed by the task of making two separate vaccines, one for swine flu and the other for seasonal flu.
Currently, based on CDC data, ABO Pharmaceuticals, a worldwide distributor of plasma derivatives, cyanide antidote kits, albumin injections, and flu vaccines, is the only distributor with stocks of seasonal influenza vaccines. ABO indicates that it has flu vaccines in stock from Novartis and CSL Biotherapies.
Quinn said that only pregnant women and 2‑month-old babies will receive H1N1 vaccine as is slowly becomes available.
Children with flu-like symptoms should be kept home from school, and for an additional day after the child’s fever resolves, Quinn said.
However, H1N1 lies dormant but contagious for three to four days before symptoms appear. Consequently, Quinn said he expects school outbreaks.
Many people in New Haven may have already had H1N1 and not even known it, he said.
About 300 cases of known H1N1 have been recorded in New Haven. That means that around 3,000 unreported cases probably occurred, he said.
Twelve patients, most of whom had respiratory problems such as asthma, were hospitalized in the spring.
“This flu season will be confusing, and long and drawn out,” Quinn said.