Swine flu vaccines to be administered from Monday: CDC
POSTED October 5, 2009 - 13:14 | POSTED BY Ayurdhi Dhar
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on October 5, 2009 - 13:53
The Center had said last week that the first doses of the swine flu vaccine were to arrive on Tuesday. AstraZeneca unit MedImmune's nasal spray will be the first vaccine to be administered to the workers.
The vaccination clinics have been opened at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, and Wishard Health Services in Indianapolis. The vaccine doses will be administered to the staff from Monday morning.
Around 250 million doses have already been ordered by the U.S. government, and the five companies which will be making the supplies are: Sanofi-Aventis SA, CSL Ltd, MedImmune, Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline.
MedImmune is right now leading in the production of the H1N1 vaccination. They were also the first ones to provide the dosage.
Will the vaccine supply be sufficient?
The U.S. government is worried over the miserably small number in which the vaccinations are going to be available, and wondering how many Americans will even have an access to them. This is because the doses are coming in at a rate of 20 million doses per week.
Even though the government will be providing the vaccines for free, the retailers and the clinicians might charge people for administering the doses.
There might ne some complications after the arrival of the seasonal flu vaccine which came into the markets last month.
Swine flu so far
The H1N1 virus has already claimed the lives of 28 pregnant and scores of children in the nation, and made hundreds more sick enough to be hospitalized. Even though the virus is not deadly, it has affected more children in a season where influenza is generally not even seen, the CDC said.
The number of children getting sicker has been climbing up substantially since the summer breaks of schools got over.
The government has a clear priority list, that is, pregnant women, children, and people suffering from chronic ailments like heart diseases and diabetes. Apart from these, heath care workers will be administered the vaccines before any one else since they constitute the high risk group.
Pediatricians will be especially provided the H1N1 vaccinations to be administered to healthy children from the age of 2 to 10. The nasal spray FluMist cannot be used on children below 2 years of age, or people above 49.
