Worried parents snatch up flu vaccine

The requests are coming in such unprecedented volume that doctors are summoning nurses on overtime. Hospitals are shifting supplies intended for staff members to pediatric clinics, and the nation's reserve of flu vaccine is plummeting to dangerously low levels.

Leading manufacturers of injectable flu shots, Aventis and Chiron, reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday that their entire stockpile of vaccine had been parceled out to doctors, clinics, and hospitals. The sudden run on vaccine, unfolding in a matter of days, was fueled in part by the demands of anxious parents, even though the elderly account for virtually all of the 36,000 deaths attributed to the flu annually in the United States.

"Over the last week to 10 days since the publicity started about the business in Colorado, we've been getting absolutely swamped," said Dr. William Primack, a pediatrician at Fallon Medical Center in Auburn.

The two drug companies prepared more than 80 million doses for the flu season, more than enough in a typical year. But this season has been anything but typical, especially with reports of up to a dozen children under the age of 16 dying from the flu in Colorado, Texas, and other states.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health sent 589,000 flu shots to doctors and clinics, about half the total available in the state, and the department has been besieged with calls this week from doctors looking for more.

Neither pharmaceutical companies nor government health agencies can say how many of the doses already shipped have been administered, but they remained hopeful that enough unused shots are sitting in refrigerators to fulfill demand. Because it takes four months to produce new lots of vaccine and because the current flu season would have ended by that time, manufacturers are not planning to make more.

"If folks are persistent," CDC spokesman Von Roebuck said last night, "they should be able to find vaccine."

Leticia Lara found vaccine in the office of Dr. Shirley Gonzalez, a pediatrician with offices in Watertown and at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. Lara's 10-year-old daughter Karen got a flu shot yesterday afternoon; her younger daughter Diana, 6, had received hers three days earlier.

"I heard the news this morning, and they said 70,000 people will die from this," said Lara, who lives in Marlborough. "It makes me afraid, so, so afraid. We have to get the flu shot to prevent a big problem."

The Lara family illustrates a delicate dilemma confronting physicians as vaccine supplies dwindle: Who should get shots, and who will be left out? Karen has asthma, putting her at risk of complications if she gets flu, while Diana is the picture of health.

Typically, flu shots are recommended only for children 6 to 24 months old and those with health conditions such as asthma, cancer, or illnesses that compromise the immune system. While the flu can be a nuisance and can result in lost school days, it's rarely life-threatening in otherwise robust children.

But with reports of children dying from influenza, parents across the nation are beseeching pediatricians to give their sons and daughters the vaccine, whether they have chronic diseases or not.

That worries Dr. Sean Palfrey, president of the Massachusetts branch of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who said he is concerned that a limited resource may not reach the adults and children who need it most. The vaccine is recommended for everyone over 50 and young adults with chronic illnesses.

Plus, Palfrey said, the strain of flu affecting most people this year, called Fujian, is not the variety covered by this year's vaccine, which had to be formulated months ahead of the flu season, based on predictions of which type of virus would emerge. The vaccine affords some protection against Fujian, specialists said.

"People should not go running out getting their healthy children vaccinated against this illness, because it's not going to work terribly well," Palfrey said. "And if those healthy children do get vaccinated, there are some people who are at risk who might not be able to get the shot."

Still, Palfrey acknowledged the predicament confronting doctors.

"Is a pediatrician with the vaccine going to turn to a parent and say, `No, I'm not going to give your child this vaccine I have in my refrigerator?' " Palfrey asked. "That's very hard to do." At Primack's office in Auburn, three to four nights are set aside most years to administer flu vaccine. This year, the regularly scheduled nights have been so packed that three more sessions have been added next week, with 150 children already booked and the parents of 50 more clamoring for slots. Business is so brisk that extra nurses are being brought in.

At Children's Hospital in Boston, vaccines that had been designated for adult workers are being redirected to the primary care clinic, known as Pediatric Health Associates. The hospital began the flu season supplied for a typical year. But by last night, only 10 or 11 doses remained for children under the age of 4, although fresh supplies are expected next week.

For parents of those younger children, "we have to tell families that we are saving the remaining stock for kids who are at high risk," said Dr. Ronald Samuels, associate director of Pediatric Health Associates. "I am concerned, given the press from this year, how people will handle that."

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.