Students who want to reduce their risk of contracting influenza by receiving a vaccine may be out of luck due to a sudden and vast decrease in the supply of the vaccine this year.
Chiron and Aventis, the two major producers of the vaccine in the United States, were expected to produce about 100 million doses this year. However, Chiron, which is located in England, had its license suspended by the British government, which will limit the number of vaccines that reach the U.S. by between 46 and 48 million, or half the expected supply.
Earlier this year, Chiron found traces of contamination in a small amount of its supply of vaccines. The company, however, did not expect it to affect a majority of the doses of flu vaccine it produced.
Chrion’s license suspension is a result of an investigation led by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in Britain. The agency expressed concern for the sterility of the vaccine supply to the British government.
A team from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to go to Britain to determine how serious of a contamination problem there is at Chiron.
Since only half of the expected supply of the vaccine will be available in America, the U.S. government has recommended that flu vaccines be limited to people at high risk of contracting the virus and to people with severe health problems. Generally, this means adults 65 years of age or older, infants between six and 23 months old and people with chronic medical problems affecting their lungs or that make them more vulnerable to infections such as the flu.
Unfortunately, many Wesleyan students are not considered at high risk. The Davison Health Center had originally had scheduled times on Nov. 1 and 2 to receive vaccine shots. With the diminished supply, however, these scheduled hours have been cancelled. Only students with chronic medical conditions as listed above will be able to get the vaccine. These students should contact the Health Center soon at extension 2470.
Davis Smith, the medical director of the Health Center, believes that the flu can easily become quite widespread on a campus the size of Wesleyan.
“Influenza spreads very easily around here,” Smith said. “This is a very intimate campus.”
A possible large-scale spread has some students feeling uneasy.
“The dorms are a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses,” Laura Brown ’08 said. “I’ll probably get the flu this year.”
In a campus-wide e-mail, Smith gave several precautions to avoid getting the flu. These precautions urged students to cough or sneeze into tissues and also to wash hands frequently. These warnings, though, do not seem to be enough to assuage wary students. “I’m really worried about the flu this year,” Hilary Moss ’08 said. “They didn’t have vaccines in 1918 and look how bad that was.”
According to Smith, approximately 375 Wesleyan students got flu shots last year through the Health Center. While relatively few students received the vaccine in the past, the fact that even fewer students will receive it this year could mean that influenza will spread around campus even more than in past years.
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