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Flu Shot Priorities Outlined
Government to first target high-risk groups, which now include hurricane survivors.
By Steven Reinberg

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 14 (HealthDayNews) -- As the flu season approaches, medical groups and the U.S. government are urging every eligible person to get a flu shot.

This year, flu vaccine will be made available first to those in high-risk groups, such as people 65 and over, those with autoimmune diseases and people with chronic conditions, pregnant women and health-care workers..

In addition, Hurricane Katrina evacuees living in shelters will also be given top priority.

The recommendations were presented at a news briefing Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Flu vaccine will be made available to the rest of the public starting on Oct. 24, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This gives us a good month to concentrate on the people who need the vaccine the most," said CDC Director Dr. Julie L. Gerberding. "This ensures people across our country that, after that point, vaccine will be made available."

Hurricane Katrina survivors are now considered priority patients and will receive flu vaccine along with other high-risk groups, Gerberding added.

"If there is any population that deserves first access to the vaccine, it is the people who have already gone through so much difficulty," she said.

This year's vaccine contains three strains of flu, H1, H3 and one B strain, Gerberding said. As far as avian flu is concerned, Gerberding said there is no ability to predict its transmission from person to person.

"There is more avian flu virus in Asia moving westward than we have ever seen before," she added. "However, there is still no evidence of person-to-person transmission."

But the CDC is putting a high priority on taking steps just in case of an avian flu outbreak. These steps include working on and stockpiling a vaccine and other antiviral medications, Gerberding said.

Flu takes a tremendous toll every year, added Dr. William Schaffner, from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "Influenza is responsible for 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths annually in the United States," he said.

In light of last year's scramble to get enough flu shots once one key manufacturer's production was halted due to contamination problems, this year the supply is expected to reach more than 90,000,000 doses from four drugmakers.

In addition, Medicare has raised the reimbursement to doctors for flu vaccine from $10.10 last season to $12.06, according to Dr. Mark B. McClellan, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Medicare has also ruled that nursing homes must make flu vaccine available to all residents. "Our goal is for 90 percent of nursing home residents to get the flu vaccine," McClellan said.

Should there be a vaccine shortage this year, the CDC will make allocation plans for what is available, said Dr. Jeanne Santoli, the associate director of science at the CDC's Immunization Services Division.

Dr. Henry Bernstein, of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases, stressed the importance of vaccinating children over 6 months to 23 months of age, and older children with chronic conditions.

"Infants and toddlers under 2 years of age and children with certain medical conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, are at the highest risk of complications if they get the flu," Bernstein said.

Moreover, Dr. Artis D. Hoven, a member of the American Medical Association's board of trustees, stressed that to prevent the spread of flu, all health-care workers should get vaccinated. "Health-care facilitates should make it as convenient as possible for health-care workers to receive the vaccine," she said.

One expert thinks that getting a flu shot serves two purposes: Preventing flu, and getting people used to vaccination in case of an outbreak of more serious disease, such as avian flu.

"It's important to get vaccinated, especially for people who are vulnerable to the complications of flu, said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.

"It's important to vaccinate as many people as possible to interrupt transmission of the flu, because we are facing a more dangerous strain of the flu," Katz added.

Getting accustomed to vaccination is a crucial public health measure to forestall an outbreak of bird flu when it happens, Katz said.

"It will," he added. "It's not a question of whether -- it's a question of when."

More information

The CDC can tell you more about flu. - http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

(SOURCES: Sept. 14, 2005, news conference with Julie L. Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta; Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Washington, D.C.; Jeanne Santoli, M.D., M.P.H., associate director, science, Immunization Services Division, National Immunization Program, CDC; Henry Bernstein, D.O., Committee on Infectious Diseases, American Academy of Pediatrics, Chicago; Artis D. Hoven, M.D., board of trustees, American Medical Association, Chicago; William Schaffner, M.D., National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, and chairman, department of preventive medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn.; David L. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Prevention Research Center, and associate clinical professor, public health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.)

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We all have to be super careful with this avain flu. It is expected to kill over one million people this year, worldwide. I think we should all prepare by becoming crazy about washing our hands, carrying disinfectant, etc. It scares me to death.

Yes, we all need to be super careful...I try to really wash my hands a lot and the disinfectant hand cleanser is a good thing to always have with you. i can't take the flu shot , so , yes it scares me...

Did you catch Primetime last night? They talked about the Avian flu, and it's expected to kill over two billion people worldwide, and will be a pandemic. There is not one thing that can prevent it, and they are expecting to quarantine people who have it. They did say that Tamiflu will help with symptoms. I went online last night and bought enough (not cheap) to keep my family halfway safe.

Where did you order it from? I think you have to take it early for it to help normal flu...this is really frightening. I was reading this on CNN this morning.

I actually found it on masters marketing of all places. 10 pills is $48.50, we ordered 20 this payday, and will order 10 every payday after that until we have enough. To fight the avian flu you ideally need to take two pills a day for up to six weeks, starting to take it when you know you're exposed or when flu signs show. This is one nasty virus. I would like to get my hands on some IV's, too. The show said when it hits nobody will be able to help you - it's every man for himself. Hospitals will be full, they make house those dying in convention centers and the like. I know I'd keep my family here. My next grocery trip I'm going to start buying extra canned foods. Luckily we're on a well, and have a woodstove we can cook on. Our home is the meeting place in case of any disaster.

Man, how sad is it to have to think like this in the 21st century??