No shortage of flu vaccine expected in US this season

Influenza vaccine supplies appear to be sufficient to meet demand this year nationally and in Massachusetts, health authorities said yesterday on the first day shots were made available to any patient who wanted one.

The chief of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding, said her agency expects more than 70 million doses to be available this flu season, a year after an unprecedented shortage of shots sent patients scrambling to secure vaccine.

In Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health, which provides about half of the flu shots in the state, has received shipment of 471,300 doses and expects about 256,000 more.

''We're in a much better place than we were last year," said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's top disease tracker.

Some medical practices have experienced episodic shortages, according to physicians, but those gaps typically have been bridged in a matter of hours, sometimes by redistributing vaccine.

Dr. Richard Marshall, chief medical officer of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston, said the Copley Square office of the group practice had to turn patients away for about two hours one day last week when vaccine caches ran out. But before redirected vaccine could arrive from another Harvard Vanguard clinic, the Copley office received a shipment of shots from its supplier, Sanofi Pasteur.

Harvard Vanguard, Marshall said, has ordered 66,000 vaccine doses. State health authorities estimate that private providers such as Harvard Vanguard will offer about 700,000 doses of flu vaccine.

The CDC, Gerberding said, has received scattered reports of spot shortages in vaccine. ''Over time," she said, ''we'll be able to catch up with a more uniform distribution."

Until yesterday, vaccine had been restricted to patients at greatest risk, including senior citizens and the chronically ill. On average, 36,000 people die each year from the flu and its complications.

The temporary restrictions on shots reflected the anxiety of health authorities who were taken by surprise last year when bacterial contamination prompted British health authorities to shutter the production line of a major supplier of vaccine to the United States, leaving the nation with about 61 million doses. That company, Chiron, only last week received clearance from US drug regulators to begin delivering vaccine for this flu season from its Liverpool factory.

So far, Chiron has shipped about 2 million doses, federal health authorities said.

Sanofi Pasteur, by far the largest provider of US flu vaccine, is expected to produce 60 million doses, while GlaxoSmithKline has promised 8 million shots, and MedImmune, the maker of an inhaled version of the vaccine, has guaranteed 3 million doses.

While encouraging patients to be vaccinated against the flu, health authorities also urged them to use caution when buying and using flu medications.

The acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, said a task force including health and law enforcement authorities has been established to prevent counterfeit flu medications from seeping into the country.

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