By Timothy B. Wheeler , tim.wheeler@baltsun.com|October 02, 2009
The first shipments of swine flu vaccine should start arriving in Maryland by Tuesday, but the initial batch will be so limited that the doses will be offered mainly to health care workers in hospitals and clinics, state health officials say.
The state is getting just 31,600 doses of vaccine to start, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - only about 1 percent of what's needed to vaccinate all the children and vulnerable adults that federal health authorities have said should be given priority for protection against the H1N1 virus. Nine people in the state have died from the virus, including two children.
But John Colmers, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said he hopes to have 55,000 doses on order by today and expects the flow of vaccine to swell rapidly in the days and weeks to come.
"We will order everything that's made available to us," Colmers said. "This is just the very beginning of a very substantial amount that will be coming in."
For now, at least, pregnant women as well as children and adults with chronic health conditions or compromised immune systems will have to wait for doses of injectable swine-flu vaccine, because the first week's batch will be nasal spray. The spray is made from live virus, which experts say presents a risk of complications for those more vulnerable people. Even so, Colmers noted, the nasal spray is considered safe to give to children 2 years old or older.
Maryland was among 25 states and large cities that placed orders for vaccine Wednesday - the first day they could - for the first 600,000 doses to be made available nationwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"More vaccine is being produced and ordered, and will be shipped regularly," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Amid growing public anxiety over the spreading flu pandemic, she acknowledged that the small first shipment of vaccines represents "a slow start" to preventing the spread of the illness, but she said the distribution is happening earlier than expected.
The state health department is acting as a clearinghouse for vaccine requests from Maryland health-care providers, and as supply becomes available, shipments will be made directly to doctor's offices, hospitals and health clinics that requested it. The state and local health departments also plan to obtain vaccine, to administer directly to residents and to furnish to smaller doctor's offices or clinics.
