Shortage of H1N1 vaccine continues

Anchorage School District officials announced the decision Friday, after realizing they were going to run short. Vaccinations to guard against H1N1, commonly called swine flu, will continue at middle and high schools, as long as the supply holds up, wrapping up by winter break, they said.

"We've been told we are not going to get enough to cover all of the kids," said Nancy Edtl, the district's director of nursing and health services. "We have enough, probably, to do the middle and high schools but not the second dose of the elementary kids."

The Anchorage School District began clinics last month, setting up mass vaccinations at every elementary school and immunizing 12,093 students, nearly half of the elementary population. But after reaching more than 2,000 students at 18 schools with a second dose, the district realized that it couldn't sustain that and still protect the older students. About 6,900 elementary students under age 10 will need to get their second dose elsewhere.

The decision upsets Angela McCoshum, president of the Campbell Elementary PTA. Campbell is among the 53 elementary schools that didn't get a second go-round.

"They've got to finish what they start. Now the kids suffer," she said.

She believes that younger children are more at risk of becoming seriously ill than older ones, so they need full protection. She's also unhappy with drug companies for not making enough vaccine to go around. "I think they're toying with us. Here's some vaccine. Only so many are going to get it."

Edtl said she was already hearing from concerned school nurses and knows parents are concerned.

"We understand their frustration," the district's nursing director said. "We really wanted to complete it so the kids were fully immunized."

Private doctors may have the vaccines and so may pharmacies. More vaccine was distributed Thursday and Friday to Carrs and Fred Meyer, for instance, though not large amounts, maybe 50 to 75 doses a site, according to Jayson Smart, deputy director of the municipal Health and Human Services Department.

Until this week, the H1N1 vaccines were limited to people in five priority groups, but on Tuesday the state opened the opportunity for everyone.

Four free public health H1N1 clinics are scheduled in coming weeks in Anchorage, starting with one from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Clark Middle School. The others are: Dec. 16, 1-7 p.m., Northway Mall; Dec. 22, 2-8 p.m., Gruening Middle School; and Dec. 29, 2-8 p.m., Romig Middle School.

Public health officials recommend that children under 10 get a second dose because they haven't been exposed to the flu the way adults have. A single dose should provide about 85 percent protection to those children, Edtl said. Second doses should be given about four weeks after the first to boost the protection but will still take hold later.

Though some countries have conducted studies saying one dose is adequate, early reports from clinical trials in the United States say otherwise, said Dr. Jay Butler, the former state medical officer for Alaska who now directs the U.S. Centers for Disease Control H1N1 vaccine task force.

Still: "One dose is better than none," he said.

Shortages are being reported all around the country.

"Most everybody would like to have more vaccine than they're having," Butler said. The manufacturers didn't initially provide the amounts that had been projected, he said.

Communities from Fairbanks to the Mat-Su and from Juneau to Ketchikan have had to cancel or reschedule clinics for lack of H1N1 vaccine, said Greg Wilkinson, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Social Services.

The federal government sends vaccine to states based on population. In Alaska, the health department distributes it to local communities, again based on population.

As of Friday, 140,430 doses had been distributed throughout Alaska. Anchorage's share is 42 percent and it's been getting about that, though the proportion may be slightly higher one day and slightly lower the next, Wilkinson said.

The vaccine supply varies week to week and will continue to come into Alaska as long as it's needed, said Laurel Wood, the state's immunization program manager.

"On any given day one particular provider may not have vaccine and the next week they might," Wood said. "This is a very fluid process."

She noted that the Anchorage School District had succeeded in vaccinating thousands of children already, no small effort.

"We hope people will be patient as we provide as much vaccine as we can for the people in Alaska," Wood said.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390. Rosemary Shinohara contributed to this story.