Jennifer Arndt isn’t vaccinated.
Instead, she compulsively washes her hands and cleans her computer keyboard with anti-bacterial wipes from red and white containers scattered throughout Syracuse University’s E.S. Bird Library. They act as visual reminder of the still-present threat of this year’s H1N1 flu. Arndt, a part-time library technician, said she tried to get inoculated, but couldn’t find a clinic in the area because of shortages. After a while she gave up. She didn’t want to face long lines she kept hearing about.
“I just didn’t want the headache of dealing with it,” said Arndt.
Arndt is among the millions of Americans facing the flu without the preventive vaccination. A shortage of H1N1vaccine has been at the heart of the national and local dilemma of how to cope with the new, potentially deadly virus. The flu has killed more than 9,000 people nationally and five in the Syracuse area since it was first identified in April 2009. At least another 47 million nationally and 3,800 locally have been sickened by the virus, according to health officials.
The vaccine shortage has worried many parents and health officials, raised the health risks of the flu and exposed weaknesses in the nation’s ability to cope with new diseases-either natural ones or those from bio-terrorism.
“We can’t produce enough vaccine to prevent a pandemic. I think that has been exposed by this flu,” said Jennifer Moffat, a professor of microbiology and immunology at SUNY Upstate Medical University.
H1N1, also known as “Swine Flu,” is a new strain of the influenza virusand is similar to the seasonal flu. The people most susceptible to this disease are the extremely young, the extremely old, those with preexisting medical conditions that compromise the immune system, and young adults between 18 and 25. The principal cause of death from H1N1 is massive lung failure, Moffat said
The swine flu has had several mutations over several decades. Two of the best known are the Spanish Flu, an earlier version of the virus, pandemic of 1918 that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide and an outbreak at Fort Dix, N.J., in the late 1970’s that infected 13 soldiers.
This version of the virus is primarily a respiratory illness. Symptoms include fever, runny or stuffy nose, coughing, head and body aches, and vomiting and diarrhea, according the Web site for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most healthy people who contract the H1N1 virus recover without medical treatment. Those with preexisting conditions, such as asthma, are more vulnerable, warns the Centers.
The primary method to prevent getting the flu is through vaccination.
“Get the vaccine, that’s your first step. It’s the biggest step and the best thing you can do for yourself,” said Moffat of Upstate Medical University.
Other ways to prevent getting H1N1 include persistent hand-washing, disinfecting and avoiding contact with sick people, she said.
The H1N1 vaccine is similar to the seasonal one in its production. The virus is first grown inside chicken eggs. Then it is extracted, killed and put into a saline solution to form the vaccine. But there is a big hitch in this plan.
“H1N1 doesn’t grow well in chicken eggs and that’s a problem,” Moffat said. That slow growth is the main reason behind the national shortage.
The CDC made an arrangement with two of the handful of American companies capable of producing the vaccine on a scale necessary to prevent a pandemic. But with only a few manufacturers, any problem is magnified, said Tom Allocco, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Health.
“Our biggest challenge has been trying to efficiently distribute the reduced dosages,” Allocco said.
Early in 2009, when it became apparent H1N1 could become a national threat, the CDC started taking vaccine orders from states. From there, the drug companies would deliver dosages on a weekly bases across the U.S, Allocco said.
When it became apparent orders would not be met, the CDC started making allocations as to how many of the reduced dosages would be delivered to which state. This was a decision made based on population and the severity of any given outbreak, Allocco said. State governments decided where the vaccines would go in-state. In New York, most vaccine went to those most at risk as identified by the CDC.
“It has definitely been a process to figure out who gets what,” Allocco said.
Along with vaccine shortage there have been several other problems in the public health system exposed by H1N1.
The CDC recently recalled more than 800,000 doses of the vaccine because it had lost some of its potency. This happened because of the time between when the vaccine was shipped and when it was used.
Another flaw is the coordination required to effectively distribute and manage any emergency vaccination, say health officials. In Onondaga County, this required the health department to deal with several different agencies and industries, while suppressing any kind of public fear that would arise, said Quoc Nguyen, medical director of the Onondaga County Health Department.
“It required a massive effort to make sure everyone was on the same page,” he said. “With so many facets in how to deal with this, no one could be completely happy.”
As of mid-December, the number of reported H1N1 cases in Central New York and around the country has steadily dropped off. That’s because of a combination of vaccinations and natural decline of the virus. On Dec. 12, New York Governor David Paterson removed restriction on who can get the vaccine, opening the doors for more flu clinics across the state.
But experts warn of another possible peak this March and are aiming to prevent that through mass vaccination.
“Viruses are totally unpredictable. We need to get the vaccine to people as fast as possible in case we see another spike in infections,” Moffat, from SUNY Upstate, said. In the meantime, health officials advise everyone to get inoculated.
For SU librarian Jennifer Arndt, this could mean a better chance at getting the vaccination — and some peace of mind. Hundreds of students pass through the library every day, bringing with them an assortment of bacteria and viruses.
“I would feel safer if I got vaccinated,” she said from her library desk. “It’s a little germy in here.”
(Steve Doane is a senior newspaper major.)
-30-
