Singapore fast running out of flu vaccines

Shortage here due to high demand worldwide, say clinics
Salma Khalik, Straits Times 3 Jun 10;

POLYCLINICS are out of flu vaccines and GP clinics are low on stock even as many families want to be protected while they travel during the school holidays, especially to the Southern Hemisphere, where it is now flu season.

One public hospital with a travel clinic, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), has run out, while the other, Changi General Hospital (CGH), says the earliest appointment it can give for a flu jab is June 16.

Stocks are also low at private clinics, with the Raffles Medical chain of more than 40 clinics having run out of its 1,000 doses by the end of last week.

Healthway Medical, which has more than 60 clinics islandwide, said it has used up most of the 3,000 shots it brought in five weeks ago, and has only a few hundred left.

Clinics say the lack of vaccines is due to a global shortage from high demand in many countries. Stocks have also run out in Australia, according to media reports.

People here are heeding the Health Promotion Board's recent series of advertisements encouraging them to get vaccinated against the flu.

A spokesman for SingHealth polyclinics, which has vaccinated more than 1,600 people since the end of April, suggested that those who cannot get this year's flu shot can opt instead for the single-strain H1N1 vaccine brought in last year, as that virus is still the main strain circulating.

Her counterpart at the National Healthcare Group polyclinics said they were also out of shots, and it was not clear if new stocks would be available. Its clinics dispensed more than 1,700 shots in just five weeks.

In the past two months, Singapore has seen high numbers of people with influenza and other upper respiratory tract infections seeking treatment.

The numbers have topped epidemic levels, with polyclinics seeing 16,000 to 18,000 such patients a week.

This fell slightly last week to 14,318, but is still about 10 per cent above the norm for this time of the year.

Doctors say they are seeing many more seriously ill flu patients than normal. Healthway's deputy medical director Vincent Chia said patients are swabbed, and those with Influenza A, which tends to cause more serious illness, are given the antiviral medicine Tamiflu.

He said he had seen patients take a turn for the worse very quickly.

Clinics that still have stocks of this year's flu shot include Parkway, which has more than 40 clinics.

The Health Ministry said the current vaccine should protect against about 80 per cent of the flu viruses circulating in Singapore right now.

The combination in flu vaccines is changed twice a year and is determined by the World Health Organisation, based on the strains expected to be most active.

The new Southern Hemisphere vaccine protects against three of the most common circulating strains, including the H1N1 pandemic that surfaced last year.

Symptoms of the flu include high fever, severe aches and pains in the joints and muscles, headache, sore throat, general weakness, runny nose and watery eyes. Complications include pneumonia, especially for the elderly. Those with existing medical problems could see their illness become more severe or suffer from multiple organ failure. About 600 people here die as a result of the flu each year.

It takes about two weeks for the vaccine, priced between $20 and $30, to start protecting against flu viruses.