Healthcare workers in Indiana and Tennessee among the first to receive H1N1 flu vaccine in the U.S.


MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 5, 2009) NBC - Healthcare workers in Indiana and Tennessee began getting the first U.S. pandemic H1N1 vaccines on Monday (October 5) as part of what the government hopes will be a mass immunization effort, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Vaccinations took place for clinic staff at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, and Wishard Health Services in Indianapolis.

The first H1N1 swine flu vaccines administered were AstraZeneca unit MedImmune's nasal spray, which was the first to be finished, packaged and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The U.S. government has ordered about 250 million doses from five companies -- Sanofi-Aventis SA, CSL Ltd, Novartis AG, GlaxoSmithKline and MedImmune.

The CDC says 47 U.S. states have ordered 1.38 million doses of the vaccine so far, with more orders to come from a total of 90,000 states, counties, cities and individual buyers such as retailers.

"Today we are really excited to begin to be able to protect these people who care for others, and to help keep them from spreading influenza to the vulnerable people they care for," the CDC's Dr Anne Schuchat told reporters and health workers at the Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center.

In Indianapolis, at the Wishard Health Services center were health workers were also being vaccinated, authorities were at pains to reassure the public about the vaccine's safety.

"This vaccine, and I hold it in my hand here, it is safe. It is not an experimental vaccine," said Marion County Health Department Director, Dr Virginia Caine.

The CDC says those most at risk - 160 million people - should be the first in line to get the vaccine.

"Pregnant women, parents, caregivers of infants under 6 months of age, children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years of age and individuals 25 to 64 years of age with underlying chronic conditions should get the H1N1 flu vaccine but once the injectible form is available. So this is just the beginning. We are all in this together," said Indiana State Health Commissioner, Judy Monroe.

The vaccines will trickle in at a rate of about 20 million doses a week, and officials are unsure how many Americans will actually get them. The U.S. government is providing them for free, but clinics and retailers may charge to administer them.

At least two surveys have suggested that demand may be somewhat higher for the swine flu vaccine than for the seasonal influenza vaccine.

A survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and Harris Interactive found that 53 percent of Americans say they plan to get vaccinated, compared with 41 percent who say they will not be vaccinated.

As of Oct. 2, the World Health Organization says it has 343,298 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 globally with at least 4,108 deaths -- but experts note these numbers do not reflect the true extent of the pandemic.

The global system for reporting influenza cases and deaths is often weeks or months behind the actual spread of disease and only a fraction of the cases or deaths are tested.

Dozens of children and at least 28 pregnant women in the United States have died from the virus and at least 100 pregnant women were sick enough to be hospitalized in intensive care, the CDC said.