US to burn millions of flu vaccine doses
Source: Agencies |
July 2, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ABOUT a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the United States public has expired ?? meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about US$260 million are being written off as trash.
The outdated vaccine, some of which expired on Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, as much as four times the usual leftover seasonal flu vaccine, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it.
"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the US Food and Drug Administration.
About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the US public will have gone to waste.
Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen HIN1 flu virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu.
"Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst-case scenario than to have had too few doses," said Bill Hall, spokesman for US Department of Health and Human Services.
Most leading health experts generally agree with that.
Millions of doses of flu vaccine generally go unused every year and are marked for burning, but in recent years the leftovers amounted to closer to 10 percent of the supply, rather than the 25 percent expiring now. Experts couldn't recall throwing away anything close to 40 million doses before.
The outdated vaccine, some of which expired on Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, as much as four times the usual leftover seasonal flu vaccine, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it.
"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the US Food and Drug Administration.
About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the US public will have gone to waste.
Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen HIN1 flu virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu.
"Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst-case scenario than to have had too few doses," said Bill Hall, spokesman for US Department of Health and Human Services.
Most leading health experts generally agree with that.
Millions of doses of flu vaccine generally go unused every year and are marked for burning, but in recent years the leftovers amounted to closer to 10 percent of the supply, rather than the 25 percent expiring now. Experts couldn't recall throwing away anything close to 40 million doses before.
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