EVERETT – Many local medical clinics will soon be getting doses of adult flu vaccine.
Now the question is: Who will get it?
The nearly 13,000 doses being shipped to Snohomish County are part of a national effort to ration flu shot vaccine to those at highest risk of serious health complications if they catch the flu.
The Everett Clinic, which until now has not had any shipments of adult vaccine this flu season, is getting 7,000 flu shots for high-risk adults over the next few weeks. The clinic has used computers to help identify high-risk patients.
That still leaves questions about who should be first in line as the vaccine arrives.
“We have no clue when they’ll deliver” the vaccine, said Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, a physician who tracks influenza issues for the medical group, which has 270,000 patients.
In 2003, it administered nearly 25,000 shots to patients.
“I personally don’t want to have a flu shot clinic where everyone over 65 runs to the front of the line,” he said. “The person who needs it most doesn’t drive, is on oxygen, has heart failure and is elderly.”
The shipments of adult vaccine are part of nearly 13,000 shots promised to medical clinics in Snohomish County. A total of 160,000 doses are expected to be sent to Washington by January as part of a national effort to get the shots to the most at-risk patients.
Everett Clinic staff have been working since October to develop a list of high-risk patients. But if the vaccine trickles in, delivered in several shipments, “that makes it very, very difficult from a logistics point of view to deliver it to the person who needs it the most,” Tu said.
High-risk patients, those 65 and older and with medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart or lung problems or undergoing chemotherapy, will be contacted as the vaccine arrives, he said.
Other clinics have been or are developing lists of patients most in need of the shots.
Providence Physicians Group, formerly Medalia Medical Group, will get 1,200 doses, which will be administered at three flu shot clinics 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 11 at its north Everett, Mill Creek and Monroe clinics, spokeswoman Cheri Russia said.
High-risk patients of any Providence clinic should call their clinic for details and to register if they qualify.
Community Health Center of Snohomish County expects to get 150 doses this month and 90 in January, said Ken Green, executive director.
Snohomish Family Medicine is getting 450 shots. Marysville Family Medicine expects 200 this month and 200 in January. Edmonds Family Medicine Clinic will get 780 shots.
No information was available Tuesday on how many shots would be delivered to the health care clinics owned by Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, spokeswoman Beth Engel said.
Patients who can’t get the shots now shouldn’t give up if they have to wait until January, said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the state Department of Health.
“People start to lose interest in flu shots in January,” Moyer said. “That’s unfortunate.”
Flu season often doesn’t hit until January and can continue into April.
“If you’re on the high-priority list, don’t give up because the calendar turns to 2005,” he said.
The national flu shot shortage comes during a year when the flu seems to be hitting later and slower than last year. Since October, The Everett Clinic has conducted flu tests on 71 patients, and four have been positive, spokeswoman Cynthia Scanlon said.
Last year, The Everett Clinic conducted more flu tests in a four-week period ending the third week of November than it did in the entire four-month flu season in 2002.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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