Vaccines thinly spread

WELLINGTON - The remaining 25 per cent of full-strength influenza vaccine available in New Zealand was delivered to doctors' surgeries around the country yesterday, says the Government's drug-buying agency, Pharmac.

Although thinly spread, doctors throughout the country should now have limited supplies.

The national vaccination programme has been delayed about four weeks after an initial vaccine was found not to be fully effective against one strain of the flu.

Pharmac said it had now received 100,000 of the 500,000 full-strength doses. A further 180,000 doses would be available in the week beginning May 2 and another 230,000 the following week.

"We would expect, by the second week of May, all eligible people who want to have a Government-funded flu vaccination will be able to have one," said Pharmac director Peter Moodie.

The Health Ministry said there was a "staged roll-out". "It's a matter of trying to spread thinly the available doses through the country so everybody gets at least some to start with," spokeswoman Emily Barrett said.

As long as doctors had reconfirmed their orders, most surgeries received the vaccine yesterday.

Pharmac was forced to scramble for new vaccine suppliers after its sole-supplier, French manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur, advised last month that its Vaxigrip vaccine provided full-strength protection against only two of the three expected flu strains.

About 50,000 New Zealanders get flu each year and an average of 400 deaths can be attributed to it. Flu vaccines halve hospital admissions and reduce death rates by 70 per cent in high-risk patients.

Nelson General Practitioners' spokesman Graham Loveridge said yesterday that having the vaccine later would not reduce its effectiveness.

In Wairarapa yesterday, available vaccines for highest-risk groups - over-65s and people with weakened immune systems - had already been used.

Masterton Medical nurse leader Glenda Campbell said they had been led to believe total stocks were in the country. "Now we're having to go around apologising to people."

Tempers flared at some Manawatu GP surgeries when people anxious to get vaccinations discovered they could not.

Immunisation nurse co-ordinator Barbara Bradnock said surgeries had been promised deliveries of the full-strength vaccine by Tuesday but supplies were only trickling in.

"There are some very irate patients."

- NZPA