Health Officials Encourage Flu Shots

WASHINGTON -- Health officials on Monday urged people to switch their focus from the possibility of an avian flu pandemic to the certainty of the annual flu season.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said there will be no repeat of last year's flu vaccine shortage. He encouraged everyone -- not just those most at risk including the elderly, young children, pregnant women and health care workers -- to get vaccinated.

"There is no reason for anyone to delay or to go without their annual flu shot," Leavitt said during a conference call with reporters. "It is available, the supply is good and we are encouraging everyone, including reporters, to get one."

On Monday, facilities nationwide began providing the shots to all who sought them. Before that, health-care workers had been vaccinating only those in the high-risk category.

More than 70 million doses are expected to be available in the United States this season, said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although vaccine will be plentiful, there are some clinics throughout the country that haven't yet received shipments. Those logistical problems are being addressed, Gerberding said, and health care providers everywhere should soon have ample supply.

HHS monitors vaccine distribution, but does not control it.

The vaccine is between 70 percent and 90 percent effective in healthy adults. But it does not protect against avian flu, a much more deadly strain that has caused 61 deaths in Asia. Bird flu, as it also is known, has not spread to the United States.

Leavitt said it is important to remember that avian flu still primarily affects animals. It has only struck humans who have had direct contact with infected birds, he added.

While avian flu has killed millions of birds in Asia and caused the slaughter of millions more there and in Europe, there have been no reported outbreaks in the United States.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said one of the main differences between seasonal flu and avian flu is that years of exposure to seasonal flu have increased people's resistance to it.

By contrast, no one in the United States has built up immunity to avian flu, he said. An avian flu outbreak likely would affect -- and kill -- many times more people than a wave of seasonal flu.

Nonetheless, seasonal flu is fatal to about 36,000 people in the United States each year, according to CDC figures.

Between 5 percent and 20 percent of U.S. residents catch seasonal flu each year. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized with flu-related complications.

Fauci said getting a greater proportion of the population vaccinated against seasonal flu every year is a goal of the department. Increased demand, he said, would spur the immunization industry to up its vaccine production capacity.

Greater capacity would be necessary to produce sufficient avian flu vaccine in the event of a pandemic.

Seasonal flu usually occurs between December and March. Symptoms of the flu include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, extreme tiredness, dry cough, sore throat and runny or stuffy nose.

There are four anti-viral drugs on the market in the U.S. that treat the symptoms of the flu. One of those drugs, Tamiflu, has gained attention amid fears that it will be in short supply if an avian flu pandemic occurs.

Tamiflu, if taken within 48 hours of flu-like symptoms, will reduce the duration of the flu and help lesson its symptoms.

Unease over a possible pandemic already has led to increased demand for Tamiflu prescriptions. But Gerberding said as long as people only use the drug -- with a prescription -- to ward off actual illness, there should not be a shortage this season.

The U.S. government currently has a stockpile of 2.3 million doses of Tamiflu, which is part of its effort to prepare for a possible avian flu outbreak.

With governments around the world also stockpiling Tamiflu as part of preparations, Andrew von Eschenbach, acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, warned Monday that counterfeiting may become a problem.

There have been no reported cases of counterfeited Tamiflu in the U.S., but von Eschenbach said fake versions may start popping up on the Internet. He advised people to only use the drug when prescribed by a doctor and obtained from a source that is licensed to distribute the prescription drugs.

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(Kristina Herrndobler can be reached at 202-263-6400 or at the e-mail address (kristina@hearstdc.com)