11,000 doses of the adjuvanted vaccine, 4,000 doses for expectant moms made available in province

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By Nick Moore
Times & Transcript Staff

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FREDERICTON - New Brunswick was already preparing for a reduced supply of H1N1 vaccine this week. As it turns out, the province is getting even less than that.

The Department of Health says it will get only about a quarter of the vaccine supply it expected for this week -- what amounts to about 11,000 doses of adjuvanted vaccine.

Another 4,000 doses of the unadjuvanted vaccine, meant specifically for pregnant women, should also be delivered and made available to expectant mothers by the end of this week. Details of the provincial clinics for pregnant woman are still being confirmed at this time.

Beyond this week, the Department of Health says its doesn't know how much vaccine New Brunswick will get for the second and third weeks of November.

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will be able to produce only about 400,000 doses of the vaccine this week instead of the million or so doses that officials expected. The shortage is affecting the entire country.

The shortage stems from production problems that arose when GlaxoSmithKline switched from making the adjuvanted version of the vaccine -- which contains a booster compound -- to making special unadjuvanted batches for pregnant women and young children.

The Canadian Press is reporting that GlaxoSmithKline had forewarned Ottawa that the switch to making the unadjuvanted vaccine would slow production. But the vaccine maker apparently underestimated how much the changeover would choke supply.

So instead of the 1.3-1.5 million doses that GlaxoSmithKline had anticipated, the drugmaker can now supply only 436,000 doses for the coming week. The result has been clinic cancellations.

Yesterday afternoon, 15 vaccine clinics that were supposed to take place over the next week in Metro Moncton were cancelled.

Health officials say more local clinics may be cancelled or postponed in the coming days.

Last week, several clinics in Metro Moncton were relocated or cancelled with just a few hours notice.

Dr. Eilish Cleary, New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health, said the goal was to give as much notice as possible for clinic cancellations and relocations. But she said the only way for people to be certain that clinics were being held as scheduled was to check the government's website before leaving their homes to get in line.

"Sometimes decisions have to be made fairly quickly," she said. "The decisions have to be made as closely to the ground as possible."

"They're trying to give as much notice as possible."

Because it's known right now that less vaccine will be available for clinics, the province hopes it will have a better handle on knowing what clinics can go ahead this week as scheduled. In that same light, they hope any clinic cancellations can be given with more notice.

Also, the priority list of who is supposed to get vaccinated first was redefined and reduced late last Friday. The province hopes the revision will reduce the long lines of people waiting to get a flu shot, and also ensure that the people who need the vaccine most get it first.

The groups considered a priority to get vaccinated first include: children aged six months to 18 years, pregnant women 20 weeks or more along, pregnant women less than 20 weeks along who have an underlying medical condition, parents of children under six months of age (because children under six months can't be vaccinated), and First Nations populations.

People with chronic illnesses under the age of 65, who were originally listed as priority before late last week, have been told to hold back before going to a clinic at this time.

The Department of Health says its new priority list will be strictly adhered to by clinic staff, admitting that wasn't necessarily the case last week.

Cleary said the province still plans to vaccinate all New Brunswickers who want a H1N1 flu shot by Christmas. However, there's no timeline firmly in place for when members of the general public might have access to the vaccine.

In spite of scarce amounts of vaccine available, the long lines, and the cancelled clinics, the provincial government says New Brunswick is still the envy of many across Canada.

New Brunswick's Health Minister Mary Schryer said more people have been vaccinated against H1N1 in New Brunswick per capita than in any other province.

"I think the system is working because we have vaccinated 82,000 people in the province of New Brunswick. That's over 10 per cent of our population," she said. "That's 82,000 people who are vaccinated and will not spread the disease.

"In a matter of four days we were able to have that done."

Premier Shawn Graham said New Brunswick's vaccination plan could only be as strong as the vaccine supply coming from federal officials.

"The system is working, albeit we need more of a supply from Ottawa and that will be arriving in the next few weeks," he said.

* With files from Canadian Press.