Canada finds half-million more flu shots but may still run out

Video: The demand for flu vaccine has become far greater than public health officials expected and in some regions it’s running out. Mike Le Couteur reports.

TORONTO – Canada has identified an additional half-million flu shots it could purchase to try to meet a soaring late-season clamouring for the product. But the deputy head of the Public Health Agency of Canada admits the country could still run out of vaccine, if people in Central and Eastern Canada follow the lead of Western Canadians and rush to get flu shots.

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The unexpected surge in demand caught health officials across the country off guard, coming at a time when vaccine clinics would normally be winding down and manufacturers have moved on to produce flu shots for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere winter.

This year’s flu season is active, but not unusually severe in terms of total numbers. However, reports of young and middle-aged adults being hospitalized and in intensive care with flu have spiked the public’s perception of risk, experts suggest.

Add to that word of potential shortages, and Canada is seeing the flu shot equivalent of a run on the bank.

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“This is a normal flu season,” Dr. Gregory Taylor, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, stressed in an interview Friday.

Taylor said he and his provincial and territorial counterparts met via a teleconference to bring each other up to speed. “We went through jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Other than some tiny variabilities, this is a normal flu season.”

The level of flu activity may be normal, but the demand for flu vaccine is off the charts, at least in some parts of the country.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories are nearing the end of their supplies. The latter two jurisdictions said Friday they will reserve the remaining vaccine for people most likely to get seriously ill with influenza.

Saskatchewan is restricting flu vaccinations to children under five, pregnant women and women who have just given birth while the Northwest Territories will give priority to pregnant women and children under five.

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Taylor said Canada’s vaccine supply working group – a federal, provincial and territorial committee – is working hard to try to match vaccine need with remaining supply – a task that sounds like running air traffic control at a busy international airport.

Taylor said an extra 245,800 doses of vaccine are being purchased from the suppliers who contract with the federal government to provide it each season – GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, Novartis and AstraZeneca.

The manufacturers’ contracts stipulate they must hold aside an additional five per cent on top of their total order, in case Canada needs to buy more vaccine. Canada is exercising that option this year.

Some of the additional stock is available now, and more will be delivered in the next few weeks, Taylor said, adding the provinces and territories agreed to a plan Friday for divvying up the extra produce.

Ontario and Quebec have offered to loan vaccine to Saskatchewan until the new purchases can be delivered, he said.

Canada is also exploring the possibility of purchasing another 360,000 doses that were made for other customers but not purchased by them. But Taylor said a decision on whether it will be bought – or needed – hasn’t been made yet.

While the federal government bulk buys Canada’s supplies of flu vaccine, provinces and territories are responsible for determining how much they need each year. And they pay for their portion of the total purchase.

The federal government buys a small amount of vaccine – around 60,000 doses – for the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP, and for First Nations people on reserves in Alberta. In all other jurisdictions First Nations people receive flu vaccine through the provincial or territorial programs.