Swine Flu Vaccine Will Be Ready Earlier Than Expected
Swine flu shots will begin sooner than expected, according to the CDC. The vaccine will be available the first week in October; originally the shots were not expected to be available until the third week of October. Only one shot will be required.
Swine flu outbreaks have rippled across U.S. schools and universities after pupils returned to classes in the past few weeks. Washington State University reported more than 2,500 cases, and the CDC last week reported a nationwide spike of influenza cases months earlier than the past three flu seasons. The test results are boosting hopes the vaccine may be available in time to curb the first pandemic in 41 years, Cox said.
"We were anticipating that it would begin mid-October," Cox told reporters today at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco. "This was a conservative estimate but it was a necessary conservative estimate. We now feel that we will have vaccine for more people earlier and this is extremely good news.'
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Vaccine supplies in early October will be limited and targeted at health-care workers and those most vulnerable to severe illness, such as pregnant women and children, Cox said.
"We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October," Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary of health and human services, said today on ABC's This Week program. "We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls out the production line."
This is good news, although it remains to be seen how quickly the vaccine can be distributed to the appropriate outlets. Certainly Secretary Sebelius has her work cut out for her.
