November 2000 • Volume 6 Number 11
Remind your patients: Come December, it's not too late to vaccinate for flu
Steps you can take
- Reassure your patients that getting vaccinated in December is worthwhile. It takes about two weeks for full protection -- and flu season peaks in February or March, the CDC says.
- Determine which patients are most vulnerable to the effects or complications of the flu. Vaccinate those high-risk patients first when your supply arrives.
- Finally, remember to give your high-risk patients pneumococcal vaccine if they haven't been immunized with it yet.
Your patients want the shot, but you can't provide it -- yet. Is that the scenario in your practice regarding the influenza vaccine?
The vaccine supply problem has created an extraordinary situation this year. According to the CDC, vaccine supplies should
be about equal to what was distributed last year -- but much
of it will reach providers later than the usual October delivery. As much as 24 percent of the vaccine is expected to be distributed in December, the CDC says.Some AAFP members have called the Academy to report they haven't gotten their vaccine supply, while grocery store flu clinics down the street are in
full swing.The Academy has been in contact with vaccine manufacturers about the situation, said Herbert Young, M.D., director of the Scientific Activities Division.
Manufacturers have said that shipments usually are made on a first order in, first order out basis.
"We've been reassured that vaccine is moving through the system, and, if you ordered vaccine, you will get it eventually," Young said.
According to manufacturers, vaccine is shipped as soon as it's released. No vaccine is currently being delivered outside of existing orders.
And the CDC has contracted with one manufacturer to produce an additional 9 million doses that will be made available to providers who haven't yet ordered vaccine.
Visit CDC's National Immunization Program Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/nip/flu-vac-supply/ for more information on vaccine availability. Go to http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r2k1006.htm for updated flu vaccination recommendations.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
FP Report | Headlines |AAFP Home | Search