Swine-flu vaccine: Shortage is severe

More people are now sick with swine flu in King County than were sick at the height of last spring's outbreak, but King County health officials don't expect to receive enough vaccine for widespread distribution until December — and possibly not until just before Christmas.

Dr. David Fleming, director and health officer for Public Health — Seattle & King County, said the vaccine is in short supply nationwide.

"We're being held hostage by a national shortage of the vaccine," said Fleming.

The county is stressing the importance of getting people with underlying health conditions vaccinated first. "We are asking people at highest risk to come to the front of the line," Fleming said.

Across the state, 635 people have been hospitalized with the flu in the past six weeks alone, and 15 have died during the same period.

The virus used to make the vaccine has proved to be a slow grower in the lab, and that's led to the national shortfall, Fleming said.

Fleming said the virus hit Eastern Washington first this fall. Based on hospital reports, H1N1 may be "plateauing" in the eastern part of the state but is now growing more prevalent in the western part of the state, he said.

More than 900,000 King County residents — particularly people with underlying health conditions, but also children and young adults — are at greatest risk of severe illness or death from swine flu.

But the county has received only enough vaccine for about 85,000 residents — less than 10 percent of the at-risk population, Fleming said.

An additional 67,000 doses are in the mail and are to arrive next week. Fleming said the county expects to receive 50,000 to 70,000 doses per week through November.

But even at that, the vaccine probably won't be widely available to everyone until December, he said.

The county's flu hotline, 877-903-5464, has been receiving about 1,000 calls a day.

"Increased numbers of people are being hospitalized, increased numbers of people are in emergency rooms," Fleming said. Given the steadily growing number of cases, the shortage of the vaccine "is frustrating for everybody," he said.

Next week's supply is going straight to health-care providers, but by the end of next week or the first part of the following week, 15,000 doses will be available at area pharmacies, he said.

Hospital-emergency visits for influenza-like illness have been increasing since the beginning of September in King County, and school absenteeism has been increasing in recent weeks, the health department reports.

The priority groups for the vaccine include: people with underlying health conditions up to age 64, pregnant women, children and young adults ages 6 months to 24 years and the caregivers of children under 6 months of age. Together, those groups make up about half the county's population.

Adults 65 and older are less susceptible to the virus, Fleming said, because older people seem to be relatively immune.

He said there are no immediate plans to distribute the latest batch of the vaccine to county health clinics. The county held four H1N1 vaccination clinics last week, using up an estimated 3,000 doses in three days.

The Snohomish Health District is holding special immunization clinics today, and had 30,000 doses of the vaccine.

In King County, there have been 124 hospitalizations since Oct. 5 and one confirmed death due to swine flu.

A possible swine-flu death in the county was reported just this week. The victim, a man, had "predisposing conditions" and died before he arrived at the hospital, the health department reported. Tests are pending to determine if he had swine flu.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com

An earlier version of this story, published October 31, 2009 and corrected October 31, 2009, incorrectly identified the Snohomish Health District. We regret the error.