100,000 more flu jabs on the way

An extra 100,000 doses of the sought after full-strength flu vaccine have been secured by health officials scouring the world to find supplies for the winter.

But New Zealand still needs about 550,000 doses after it emerged that the doses ordered were under-strength for one of the three flu strains predicted to hit the country.

The Health Ministry and Pharmac are searching for last-minute supplies of full-strength vaccine. By Tuesday they had obtained 50,000 doses from drugs company Solvay.

But yesterday, when Health Minister Annette King was battling criticism in Parliament, she announced the Government had secured a further 50,000 doses which will be available to patients from the middle of next month, and another 50,000 for mid-May.

The supplies will come from Australian pharmaceutical company Commonwealth Serum Laboratories.

The Deputy Director-General of Public Health, Dr Don Matheson, said exact details of the vaccination programme were being worked out, and the ministry expects to make details public "sometime next week".

The Medical Association and Grey Power both reported high levels of anxiety yesterday.

"The elderly are really concerned," said Dr Peter Foley, the chairman of the association's GP council.

"All around the country we are getting patients calling us about it."

The ministry is also doubling supplies of the original, weaker vaccine, from sanofi pasteur, securing 1.38 million doses in the event that people need two doses for protection.

Health officials learned on February 28, after tests in Australia, that New Zealand's then sole supply, from sanofi, was too weak.

Because of human error at sanofi's French factories, its vaccine has on average 10 - instead of 15 - micrograms of antigen for one of the three flu strains, the so-called A/Wellington strain.

It is not clear what the effect of the deficiency may be.

Sanofi is starting a trial next Monday of 120 people in Adelaide and Sydney but the results will not be available until near the end of next month.

Health specialists say that the flu could take a tighter hold on New Zealand this year because of the weaker-than-planned brew in the main vaccine.

Dr Marguerite Dalton, the medical adviser of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at Auckland University, said: "The flu is likely to have a more significant effect because if more people are infected they are going to be able to pass that on."

Doctors refer to the protection conferred on a community by high rates of immunisation as "herd immunity". This can protect the unvaccinated and those who do not develop a strong anti-body response to the vaccine.

While the main vaccine has a smaller volume of antigens against the A/Wellington flu strain than was intended, it is unclear if this will translate into recipients producing too few antibodies.

If it does induce a too-weak immune response, people will need to have a second injection to gain the best chance of protection.

If large numbers choose not to have a second injection - and risk a second sore arm - more people could become sick with the flu, increasing the risks for those not immunised.

Who gets the vaccine?

* Health Ministry officials and medical advisers are writing guidelines on how to ration 150,000 doses of full-strength flu vaccine.

* The guidelines are due out in a week.

* They are expected to target the restricted supplies at sick elderly people and children, including those with chronic heart or lung conditions.

- additional reporting NZPA