2004 News Release

Cattaraugus County Health Department was notified by the Chiron Corporation that the company will not be able to supply flu vaccine this year. "Chiron deeply regrets that we will be unable to meet Public Health needs this season." British authorities suspended the license of Chiron Corporation for three months because of problems at its vaccine manufacturing plant in Liverpool, England, which primarily supplies the American market. The Cattaraugus County Health Department as well as other Health Departments throughout the state and nation had placed vaccine orders from this company in April of this year. The County's order for 5,000 doses of vaccine was cancelled October 5th, 2004.

What Does This Mean To You??
 The remaining supply of influenza vaccine expected to be available in the United States this season is nearly 54 million doses of Fluzone® (inactivated flu shot) manufactured by Aventis Pasteur, Inc. Of these doses, approximately 30 million doses already have been distributed by the manufacturer. In addition, approximately 1.1 million doses of live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV/FluMist®) manufactured by MedImmune will be available this season.

Priority Groups for Influenza Vaccination

The following priority groups for vaccination with inactivated influenza vaccine this season are considered to be of equal importance and are:

• all children aged 6–23 months;
• adults aged 65 years and older;
• persons aged 2–64 years with underlying chronic medical conditions;
• all women who will be pregnant during the influenza season;
• residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities;
• children aged 6 months–18 years on chronic aspirin therapy;
• health-care workers involved in direct patient care; and
• out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children aged <6 months.

Vaccination of Persons in Nonpriority Groups

If you are not included in one of the priority groups above, you are being asked to not get a flu shot at this time.

If you are 5-49 years old, healthy and not pregnant you are encouraged to receive the intranasally administered live attenuated flu vaccine.  This vaccine may be used by heath -care workers (except those who care for severely immunocompromised patients in special care units) and persons who care for children less than 6 months old.

Persons who are not included in one of the priority groups described above should be informed about the urgent vaccine supply situation and asked to forego or defer vaccination.

Intranasally administered, live, attenuated influenza vaccine, if available, should be encouraged for healthy persons who are aged 5–49 years and are not pregnant, including health-care workers (except those who care for severely immunocompromised patients in special care units) and persons caring for children aged < 6 months.

Persons Who Should Not Receive Influenza Vaccine

Persons in the following groups should not receive influenza vaccine before talking with their doctor:

• persons with a severe allergy (i.e., anaphylactic allergic reaction) to hens' eggs and
• persons who previously had onset of Guillain-Barré syndrome during the 6 weeks after receiving influenza vaccine.

Additional information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/flu or through the CDC public response hotline, telephone 888-246-2675 (English), 888-246-2857 (Español), or 866-874-2646 (TTY).

Flu & other illnesses may be prevented by following these simple guidelines:

• Avoid close contact

Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.

• Stay home when you are sick

If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness.

• Cover your mouth and nose

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick.

• Clean your hands

Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth

Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.