Vaccine shortage felt locally.(Flavor/Gracious Livingront) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Byline: ELIZABETH SIMPSON

BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Health-care providers who had just been gearing up to distribute the season's flu vaccines to the healthy and infirm of Hampton Roads are now regrouping in the face of a vaccine shortage.

Local medical practices and health departments will be giving priority to people in high-risk groups, such as the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, and children 6 to 23 months of age, in accordance with national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The news Tuesday that half the country's flu vaccine would not be available this season caught local health providers off guard. Many had already started distributing flu vaccines.

Sentara Optima Health Care, which had begun distributing flu vaccines at work places throughout the community this week, closed a clinic an hour early on Tuesday after hearing the news. Optima has canceled flu clinics at companies in the community for the rest of the week to revamp policies.

'We need to regroup and figure out how to get the vaccine to the high-risk people first,' said Dr. George Heuser, medical director for Optima Health Care. He said Optima administers 10,000 flu shots a year at work- and community-based sites.

He said Optima will resume the clinics, probably early next week, once guidelines are established on how to make sure people in greatest need of the vaccine receive it.

Shirley Mitchell, a 46-year-old employee at Greenbrier Volkswagen, was one of the lucky ones to get a vaccine at her place of employment on Monday, the day before news broke about the shortage.

'I guess I'll be taking care of everyone else in my family now,' she said.

Local health departments have not yet received their shipments from the state's central pharmacy, but are already shifting gears to give priority to high-risk groups. 'We'll have to take an alternative approach with healthy people,' said Marian Vollmer, nurse manager at the Chesapeake health department . 'We'll be telling them about the other ways to prevent the flu.'

The state health department will not be receiving 110,000 doses of adult flu vaccine ordered from Chiron, the company whose plant in Liverpool was shut down by British regulators because of manufacturing problems. However, the state expects to receive 115,000 children's doses ordered for the Vaccines for Children Program from another company, Aventis Pasteur .

Sentara Healthcare has received about 87 percent of its flu vaccine request, according to Dave Merryfield, manager of the clinical pharmacy program for the Sentara Healthcare system. The 80,000 vaccine doses received will be distributed to high-risk population groups at Sentara-affiliated medical offices and hospitals and also at community clinics. He said 13 percent of the health network's vaccines were ordered from Chiron - a shipment that the system won't receive.

Bon Secours Hampton Roads had ordered half of its vaccine from Chiron and expects to lose that. Bon Secours, which operates three local hospitals, purchased the other half from Aventis.

The Children's Health Network, which orders flu vaccines for 40 pediatric offices in Hampton Roads, including those affiliated with Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, ordered 29,000 doses from Aventis. Despite receipt of full shipment, CHKD doctors are still being asked to give priority to patients who fall in high-risk categories.

In a letter to its affiliated doctors, CHKD officials said the federal government might try to obtain excess vaccine from private practices to reallocate to places in greater need. 'We just don't know at this point, but we want to ensure that all children within the guidelines are able to receive the vaccine,' said the letter from Dr. Albert Finch, executive medical director of the CHKD Health System, and Dr. Hugh McPhee, executive medical director of the CHKD Medical Group.

Public health departments are waiting to see just how much flu vaccine each department will receive. John Monroe, epidemiologist for Norfolk Health Department, said that department still hopes to have flu shot clinics in the community, but probably not as many as in previous years.

Farm Fresh stores that provide flu shots also will be following CDC guidelines. Public spokeswoman Susan Mayo said Maxim Health Systems administers the Farm Fresh flu vaccines and will be limiting them to those in high-risk groups.

* Reach Elizabeth Simpson

at 446-2635 or at

elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com