By
Blake Smith
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Shots normally given in October will be pushed off until mid-November
Nearly 4,500 faculty and students expecting to get flu vaccinations from the UA Campus Health Service and UMC next month could see a delay in immunizations, a university health official said yesterday.
Jolie Schaeffler, immunization nurse for UA Campus Health Service, said facilities across the nation that produce the vaccine have been slow in distributing the preventative medicine.
"They're having trouble culturing out the A-Panama virus," Schaeffler said.
The A-Panama virus is one of two new influenza type-A strains recommended to be included in this year's vaccine.
Another cause for the delay is the fact that the Food and Drug Administration is currently taking regulatory action against two of the manufacturers of the flu vaccine, stated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.
The normal season for flu shots starts in October, but now it could be delayed until the middle of November.
"We will get all of our supply in, but they may come in two or three shipments," Schaeffler said.
UA Campus Health Services usually gets a full stock of the vaccine in August, but has yet to receive its supply.
Schaeffler said Campus Health normally administers about 2,000 doses of the vaccine to students each year.
College students are more susceptible to contracting the flu virus because they are often confined in close quarters, she added.
Connie Glasby, director of the infection control program for the University Medical Center, said the hospital has not received its supply of the vaccine yet either.
"The reports are that there won't be as much as usual," Glasby said.
UMC usually does not receive its batch for a couple of weeks though, she said.
"This year they (CDC) were making a push to vaccinate people 50 and over," Glasby added, but the CDC has backed down to their original recommended target group of people 65 and older.
UMC and the UA Campus Health Service still advise people in high-risk groups, like children and adults with asthma and those with diabetes, to get their flu shot as usual.
