 "Photo: Nathaniel LaRue")
The lack of availability for the H1N1 flu vaccine has created angst across the country, but a shortage of the regular seasonal flu vaccine is becoming just as troublesome.
Many clinics and hospitals across the United States have run out of seasonal flu shots, including those in the Manhattan area.
The reason for this shortage is not entirely clear, but several explanations have been offered from source to source.
According to an Oct. 14 article in The Morning Sun, a newspaper published in Pittsburg, Kan., many manufacturers of seasonal flu vaccine had been unable to produce enough of the vaccine because their efforts had been directed toward producing the H1N1 vaccine.
Carol Kennedy, director of health promotion at Lafene Student Health Center, said she had not heard of any shortage of the seasonal flu vaccine, but confirmed that Lafene was out. Additional seasonal flu vaccines are expected to come during the first week of November, but those vaccines were reserved for students only.
The Riley County Health Department is also out of the seasonal flu vaccine. Kathy Dickey-Wilson, clinic supervisor at the RCHD, said the department has administered between 3,200 and 3,300 doses this fall and was supposed to get a shipment of 500 more on Oct. 1, but those vaccines have yet to arrive.
“We’re just waiting, trying to be patient,” Dickey-Wilson said.
She said she heard the flu vaccine was short this year because of the production of H1N1 vaccine, but said she also heard the shortage was due to the higher demand for all flu vaccines this year, thanks in part to the promotion in the media.
She added that a shortage of vaccines was nothing unusual; she recalled a large shortage about five or six years ago and said there have been times in the past when there was plenty of vaccine, but it failed to arrive until late in the season, prompting many people to make do without.
“This is not really new; it’s just frustrating,” Dickey-Wilson said.
Amanda Aldridge, spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control, denied a shortage of seasonal flu vaccine in an Oct. 23 article for the Mount Vernon News.
“It’s still early in the season. Traditional shipments were shipped out early in preparation for H1N1,” Aldridge said in the article. “Peak flu season isn’t until January or February, so there will be plenty of vaccine for anyone who wants it.”
According to the CDC, between 5 and 20 percent of people in the United States get the seasonal flu each year.
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