Swine Flu Vaccine to be Ready by October

10/26/2009 - News

Swine Flu Vaccine to be Ready by October

By: June Chen, MD

Tools:
  • Print this page
  • Bookmark this page
  • Forward this page to a friend
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Vaccine makers have informed a panel of experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the U.S. may have as many as 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine ready to distribute to the public by October, but this estimate is uncertain.

Vaccine makers have informed a panel of experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the U.S. may have as many as 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine ready to distribute to the public by October, but this estimate is uncertain.

The H1N1 influenza virus has caused more than 170 deaths in the United States since the spring. The FDA may formally approve most of the swine flu vaccine before the studies needed to prove how well it works are fully completed, in part because the steps required to make the swine flu vaccine are the same as those taken to make the seasonal flu vaccine. The swine flu vaccine production effort is complicated by the fact that manufacturers also need to continue making a separate vaccine against the regular winter flu.
 
In the United States, the seasonal flu kills an estimated 36,000 people each year. However, even if the swine flu is not as deadly as the regular winter flu, the U.S. population is nearly 100 percent susceptible to H1N1 influenza virus. Based on these current estimates, even if 160 million doses of the swine flu vaccine are available in October, it is expected that each person will require two doses of the swine flu vaccine so the supply would still cover only a fraction of those who are at the risk for becoming sickest if infected by swine flu – school-age children, teenagers, and young adults.
 
In addition to the swine flu vaccine injection, the U.S. may also have access to a nasal-spray swine flu vaccine.
 

Source:

Adapted from Associated Press, July 24, 2009.

Created on: 07/29/2009
Reviewed on: 10/26/2009

Your rating: None
Read more about:
Tools:
  • Print this page
  • Bookmark this page
  • Forward this page to a friend
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Add your comment

  • Allowed HTML tags: <p><b><em> <strong> <cite> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Click here to subscribe to the comments

ADVERTISEMENT



Alzheimer test

Information For Caregivers

IAGG Webcast