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A public health nurse prepares a dose of H1N1 vaccine at the Balboa Park Community Center in Encino, California October 23, 2009. REUTERS/Mark Boster/Pool
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Friday they are making progress in improving the supply of H1N1 vaccine to state health departments and urged people frustrated by long lines and scarce supply not to give up.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Anne Schuchat said there are now twice as many doses of vaccine available as there were two weeks ago, with 38 million doses ordered or available for ordering by states.
The figure is still below the government's earlier estimate of 40 million doses available by the end of October, but Schuchat said the pace of progress is improving.
"Today's number is up more than 11 million doses from last Friday's amount. That is progress. If all goes well, we're expecting about 8 million doses to be available in the week ahead," Schuchat told a news briefing.
The U.S. government initially projected that 20 million doses would roll out every week, but companies manufacturing them are producing only about 10 million doses a week or fewer, depending on when batches are ready.
The shortage of H1N1 vaccines has heaped pressure on public health departments across the country that must dole out the scare vaccine to groups at the highest risk from swine flu. Children and young people under age 24, pregnant women, healthcare workers and people with underlying health conditions are supposed to get the shots first.
The United States buys both seasonal and H1N1 vaccine from five makers -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc, AstraZeneca Plc's MedImmune unit, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, and CSL Limited.
Robert Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues found that only 5 percent of Americans they polled have been vaccinated against H1N1 so far.
LOW PERCENTAGE VACCINATED
Their nationally representative survey of 1,073 adults found that 17 percent of all adults and 41 percent of parents had tried to be vaccinated.
But just 21 percent of high-priority adults, such as asthma patients, have tried to be vaccinated. Of those who tried to get an H1N1 vaccine, 30 percent succeeded.
"We still don't have enough vaccine. We know that communities are seeing lots of demand and the supply has hasn't caught up with that. We do need more, but we think we're moving toward a path of improvement at this point," Schuchat said.
The pandemic H1N1 virus has infected millions globally, with more than 5,000 documented deaths, including more than 1,000 Americans.
Schuchat said swine flu is still widespread in 48 states and she does not believe the pandemic has reached its peak, noting that flu season can last through May.
"Most of the illness we are seeing is in younger people," she said. The latest count shows 129 children have been killed by the virus in the United States since April, up from 114 a week ago.
Two thirds of those deaths have been in people with underlying conditions such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and asthma.
On Thursday, New York City health officials scrambled to explain themselves in the wake of media reports that bankers got scarce H1N1 flu vaccines at work.
Schuchat said state and local health departments are best placed to make the decision about where the vaccine goes, but added, "We work very closely with the states and have been emphasizing the priority populations."
(Additional reporting by Maggie Fox in Washington; editing by Philip Barbara)
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