Vaccine lottery leaves elderly at mercy of flu

700,000 New Zealanders a year get flu vaccinations.

Tens of thousands of elderly people with chronic illnesses will be left vulnerable to a severe strain of flu this winter as officials prepare to ration a small supply of effective vaccine.

Only 50,000 doses of a vaccine that covers all three flu strains likely to circulate this winter will be on offer to more than 700,000 New Zealanders who want inoculations.

The small supply leaves little option but to immunise people with the deficient Sanofi-Pasteur vaccine, which may not be strong enough to ward off the severe Wellington influenza strain.

Those given priority for the Solvay vaccinations will include sick children and old people with severe heart and lung conditions.

Doctors are expected to be asked to go through their records and decide which patients have the greatest need of the Solvay vaccine.

However, figures confirmed by the Ministry of Health indicate thousands of the elderly will miss out and may be given a double dose of the Sanofi vaccine instead.

About 160,000 New Zealanders aged over 65 have chronic illnesses. Most would normally be vaccinated, but officials plan to give priority to those with serious heart or lung ailments.

Health Minister Annette King said she had "complete confidence" in the way the medical profession was handling the problem, but National MP Dr Paul Hutchison labelled it a "public health crisis".

The chairman of the Medical Association's GP Council, Dr Peter Foley, said there was no way of knowing yet how many people were in the high-risk category, but 50,000 Solvay doses provided only a small proportion of the coverage needed.

GPs would work with the Ministry of Health to decide who should get vaccinated, Dr Foley said.

NZ would have to use the Sanofi product. "We don't have any choice. This is an 11th or 12th hour problem and there is no other vaccine source available in the world, so we either use this or we use nothing."

It remains uncertain how effective the Sanofi vaccine will be against the Wellington strain.

For a fit adult, who has had a similar vaccine before, it is expected to provide significant protection.

However, for those with reduced resistance because of age or illness, its effectiveness will be much less.

The Deputy Director-General of Public Health, Dr Don Matheson, said the Sanofi vaccine was effective against two strains of flu and there were no concerns about its safety.

He said options the ministry was considering included giving people two doses of the Sanofi vaccine, perhaps together or staggered some weeks apart.

A decision on whether that would be done would be made in about a week. Information was being obtained about any possible side-effects from a double dose.

Pharmac, which has been criticised for having just one supplier of flu vaccine, has now secured 1.38 million doses of the Sanofi vaccine, which would allow double doses.

The agency would not say who is paying for the extra doses.

The medical director of Sanofi Pasteur Australia, Dr Victor Carey, said NZ should use the vaccine.

He said influenza could be life-threatening, and without another option, using the Sanofi vaccine was the best public health decision.

Dr Carey confirmed it was Australian health officials who first detected the problem with the Sanofi vaccine, which occurred because of a manufacturing mistake.