Arkansas could get 157,000 doses of swine flu vaccine in early October

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas could receive about 157,000 doses of swine flu vaccine the first week of October, two weeks earlier than projected, the state Health Department said today.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced over the weekend that H1N1 influenza vaccines, previously planned for shipment to the states in mid- to late-October, could be ready sooner. Arkansas Health Department spokesman Ed Barham said today that states could receive 15.7 million doses in the early part of the month.

“What the plan has been from the start is for us to receive an amount that’s equivalent to what our population represents relative to the rest of the country. If they actually manage 15 million doses — and 15.7 million doses is what they were shooting for — to be shipped in early October, then we’d get about 157,000 doses,” Barham said.

“That could be very good news for people who are very high-risk,” he said.
About 17 million doses are expected to be distributed in mid-October, so Arkansas could get about 170,000 doses then, Barham said. Additional supplies are expected every week or two thereafter, but how long those shipments will continue is unknown, he said.

Barham cautioned that those figures are based on oral communications from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are not set in stone.

“We haven’t seen anything in writing yet,” he said.

The first lots to arrive in the state will be reserved for high-risk groups: Pregnant women, health care workers and emergency responders, children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years, people caring for infants under 6 months, and people with underlying medical conditions.
Arkansas has recorded five swine flu deaths this year.

Barham said Arkansas has also ordered 720,000 doses of seasonal flu vaccine, compared to 265,000 last year. Seasonal flu vaccinations — and possibly swine flu vaccinations — will available at a series of clinics across the state, he said.

“We hope to administer as much of the H1N1 vaccine at those clinics as we possibly can,” Barham said. “That depends on what the supply is on Oct. 29 when we kick those off.”

Also today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it has approved four vaccines for the H1N1 virus.

“Today’s approval is good news for our nation’s response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a news release. “This vaccine will help protect individuals from serious illness and death from influenza.”