Catch up with the flu during the offseason

Thursday, March 31, 2005 11:11 AM CST

Springlike breezes finally whispered across southeastern Wisconsin this week melting the last few snowpiles reminding us of winter.

Before all those winter memories evaporate in the summer-like sun, we'd like to reminisce about one: the great flu snafu.

Don't remember? Well, hopefully that's because the flu bug didn't bite close to your home.

But to recap. Remember those senior citizens last fall who were standing in line to get flu vaccines after Chiron Corp. was forced to shut down its manufacturing operations and the United States lost almost half its anticipated 100 million doses of flu vaccines? The unexpected shortfall triggered a rationing system with Americans urged to let the most vulnerable - young children, the elderly and others considered high-risk - be first in line for the limited supplies. That worked; sort of.

Wisconsin now has an extra 50,000 doses that were earmarked for children in low-income families that will go to waste. The state asked for permission to use some of those vaccines for others in November, but didn't get permission to do so until February and by then people, some of whom may have been turned away in the fall, figured the flu season was pretty much done.

Sigh.

We understand there's a lot of guesswork in developing flu vaccines - a process that's actually under way right now for next winter. And we understand as well that manufacturers of vaccines have dwindled because of the lack of profit in the vaccine area over the years. That's worrisome.

We note, as well, the rise of avian influenza which jumped from birds to humans after it was identified in Hong Kong in 1997 and is feared for its potential to cause the world's next global pandemic. Pandemics - global flu epidemics - break out every generation or so. The deadliest one in modern times was the Spanish flu of 1918 which is estimated to have killed 20 million to 100 million people.

Precautions against avian flu are being developed and we read this week that three U.S. medical schools will begin human tests of vaccines against avian flu this week. About 2 million doses of the vaccine have already been stockpiled.

That's a start. But we note, as well that Chiron Corp. - which had manufacturing problems last summer - is one of the two firms that is developing the avian flu vaccine.

We don't want to be scaremongers, but the threat of an avian flu pandemic or even a hard-core winter flu strain are nothing to sneeze at. They can kill people - thousands, hundreds of thousands of people.

U.S. health officials need to aggressively monitor production of vaccines to make sure there are no slipups and should also work with Congress to develop incentives and encourage more vaccine makers in order to boost production capabilities - now, before winter's ill winds are on us again.

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