COURTESY OF MAUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE CAMPUS HEALTH CENTER
Wailuku Elementary School student Alex Chun, 10, receives a flu shot from nurse practitioner Denise Cohen, left, and licensed practical nurse Heidi Stone.
Maui experiencing
shortage of flu vaccinesSome physicians are limiting
the shots to high-risk patients
WAILUKU >> Flu vaccines are in high demand and short supply on Maui, apparently after reports from the mainland about a deadly strain of influenza and vaccine shortages.
The increased demand has forced some Maui health practitioners to restrict the vaccines to high-risk patients and to make plans to administer the more expensive flu mist.
Maui Community College's health center and a number of physicians are out of flu vaccine and unable to resupply because of the mainland shortage.
Maui Memorial Medical Center has some doses of the flu vaccine, but the shots have been limited to immunizing staff members to prevent the spread of infectious diseases to patients and to high-risk patients.
Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program is transferring some vaccine from its clinics on Oahu to Maui to meet the demand, said spokeswoman Jan Kagehiro.
Denise Cohen, a nurse practitioner at Maui Community College's health center, said an order of 100 doses received Tuesday was filled by Wednesday, and she has a waiting list of nearly 60 people.
Cohen said the center is able to get FluMist but that the cost is about $50 a dose, compared with $9 a dose for a flu shot, and most health insurers will not reimburse people using the intranasal vaccine.
Family practitioner Dr. Robert Bird, who has been out of the vaccine for two weeks, said he suspects there has been so much publicity about the flu that people who are not at high risk have been getting the shots.
Bird said the situation makes it more difficult for those at high risk, including young children and older people, to get the shot.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high-risk people also include adults and children with chronic heart or lung problems and women who will be more than three months pregnant during the flu season. The CDC recommends flu shots for people more than 50 years old.
On the mainland at least 20 children have died from influenza, and some experts say this year's death toll could surpass the annual average of 36,000 flu deaths, according to the New York Times.
No one in Hawaii has died from the virus this flu season, state health officials said. And no one in Hawaii has contracted the virulent A-Fujian-H3N2 strain of the virus that has killed people on the mainland, they said.
Judy Strait-Jones, a health educator with the state immunization program, said the flu shots protect people from the "A/Panama" influenza and might provide some protection from the "A/Fujian-type" strain.
Strait-Jones said health officials are recommending immunization for "high-risk" people and telling them to be persistent in their search for immunization.
State health officials and a number of health care professionals said they do not know the amount of flu vaccine that is available in Hawaii.
The state Department of Health does not track the amount of flu vaccine available in Hawaii because it does not administer the vaccine to the public, and immunization is handled mainly by clinics and physicians, state health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.
Okubo said the flu season started in mid-November of this year, earlier than the usual December date, and is expected to reach a peak in January or February.
She said families who are unable to afford flu shots may have their children immunized for free under a program administered by physicians.
For more information about the flu virus and locations administering flu shots, the public may access the state Department of Health's Web site at www.hawaii.gov/doh. The Web site is updated every Friday.
