Swine Flu Vaccine Is Here

October 10, 10:26 AMBoston Health News ExaminerC. Stacy Beam

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The federal government and vaccine manufacturers have been working double-time to meet their stated goal of having the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine available to people around the country, including here in the Bay State, by mid-October.

Getting the vaccines ready for administration was no easy task given the urgency and need for clinical trials to determine safety and efficacy.  Nonetheless, public health officials met their deadline and are now in a race to make sure that people have accurate information about the vaccine. 

All one has to do is google "swine flu, side effects vaccine" to see that the internet has become a repository of information, both good and bad, about the possible risks and benefits of getting the H1N1 vaccine.  This has been a cause for concern among federal, state and local health officials who fear that people may not get vaccinated based upon unfounded fears or rumors circulating about the safety of the vaccine:

While the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu is new, the vaccine brewed to stop it follows the same tried-and-true laboratory and production methods used to churn out millions of doses each year against the seasonal strain. And, so far, clinical trials of the vaccine have not turned up any side effects more worrisome than the mild variety associated with annual flu immunizations.

?But that message clearly is not reaching everyone, as evidenced by chatter in the blogosphere and a series of recent polls exposing significant pockets of ambivalence about the vaccine, even as an expected 195 million doses begin to trickle into physician offices, clinics, and hospitals in Massachusetts and nationwide.?In part, specialists said, that reflects an entirely understandable response to the uncertain threat posed by this year’s swine flu strain, first identified in people in April. Message board postings from some people suggest that because the H1N1 virus has not ignited widespread, severe illness, they are unwilling to tolerate the side effects of a vaccine, no matter how transient.

?[snip]

 ??Dr. Thomas Frieden, chief of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, went so far as to announce that his own children are being vaccinated.??“We have cut no corners,’’ Frieden said. “This flu vaccine is made as flu vaccine is made each year, by the same companies, in the same production facilities, with the same procedures, with the same safety safeguards.’’

?That, more than anything, is the cornerstone of assurances that the vaccine is safe. Additionally, clinical trials are being conducted, even though drug companies were not technically required to conduct additional research because they have standing licenses to produce flu vaccine.?Studies published last month in The New England Journal of Medicine show the vaccine marshals a robust platoon of disease-fighting cells against the virus. Side effects mirror those blamed on the seasonal vaccine: soreness at the spot where the shot is given, headaches, and, in a few people, slight fevers.

?[snip]??

A mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal is present in multidose vials of injectable flu vaccine. The substance, which has for years been used to preserve the seasonal flu vaccine as well, has proved controversial, with some activists implicating it in the increased incidence of autism. An independent panel of scientists, commissioned by the federal government, concluded in 2004 that there was no link between thimerosal in childhood vaccines and neurological disorders. Still, swine flu vaccine will be available in individual doses free of thimerosal, and patients who want that should ask for it.

?There is also a nasal spray version, and the first batch of vaccine that arrived this week in Massachusetts, about 36,800 doses, was exclusively the spray. It is made from a substantially weakened form of the virus. But, because it does contain bits of live virus, specialists recommend it not be given to pregnant women or patients with compromised immune systems, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or other chronic conditions.
 

As supplies are gradually making their way into Massachusetts, there will be a tiered system for health care providers to determine who should be vaccinated first in order to ensure that the people most vulnerable to getting this strain of flu, will be adequately protected.

As always in situations such as this, health care providers and responders are the first to get the vaccine if they choose to do so.  The reasons for this should be obvious- if a major pandemic were to hit Massachusetts (or any state), health care providers and first responders have to be available to take care of the sick.  The guidelines for administration are as follows:

1. Health care providers 

2. Pregnant women
3. People who live with or care for children younger than 6 months.
4. People from age 6 months to 24 years.

5. People from age 25 to 64 with weakened immune systems or such chronic health problems as asthma, heart disease, diabetes or brain/nervous-system disorders.

  For more info: Flu.Gov, the CDC's H1N1 guidance page and the CDC's FAQ page