Troops, key doctors to get first U.S. bird flu shots

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Troops, key doctors to get first U.S. bird flu shots

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Mon Oct 22, 7:13 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deployed military troops, emergency workers,

pregnant women and children will be among the first to get scarce

vaccinations if a pandemic strain of flu breaks out, U.S. officials said.

A long-awaited report to be issued on Tuesday lays out who would be

first in line to get vaccinated against H5N1 bird flu or any other

strain of pandemic influenza.

The Health and Human Services report proposes creating four categories

of people, and vaccinating the top tier of each category first. The

categories are homeland and national security, critical

infrastructure, health and community support services and the general

population.

" Certain military personnel like deployed forces would get vaccinated

before certain other military personnel, " HHS science adviser

Raub said in a telephone interview.

Virtually all health experts agree that the world is overdue for a

pandemic of some sort of influenza.

No one can predict when one might come, how bad it would be or which

strain of influenza virus may be responsible. But the H5N1 bird flu

virus that has infected 331 people since 2003, killing 203 of them, is

the current chief candidate.

Companies are working to make a vaccine against H5N1 but the process

takes months and it is not clear if vaccines formulated to match the

current strain would protect well against whatever mutated version

emerges to cause a pandemic.

" We won't be able to start making a true vaccine against the actual

pandemic virus until that virus appears, until we have samples, " Raub

said.

" No matter how rapidly we build up our production capacity we won't

have 300 million doses of vaccine overnight. The material will come

off the line in successive lots.

" So therefore it means we need to have in hand a well-thought-out,

transparent framework as to how we hope states and communities would

make the decision about who gets vaccinated first. "

REVISIONS PENDING

The plan, to be released at public meetings and on the Internet at

http://pandemicflu.gov, is not final and will be revised after

comments from experts and members of the general public, Raub said.

Much depends on how severe the pandemic actually is. The 1918 pandemic

killed hundreds of millions of people globally, but two others, in

1957 and 1968, were much milder.

Raub said it also is not clear if people who are vaccinated with the

so-called pre-pandemic vaccines being prepared now should go to the

back of the line.

Level " A " people to get vaccinated first include " deployed and

mission-critical personnel " under the homeland and national security

category. Level A in the critical infrastructure category include

emergency medical services workers, law enforcement and fire

personnel, flu vaccine and drug makers and key government leaders.

Under health, those first in line include public health and direct

health care providers, while under the general public category,

pregnant women and infants and toddlers come first.

" In past pandemics, groups at increased risk for serious illness and

death have differed by age and health status, " the report reads.

" Because the high-risk groups in the next pandemic are not known, this

guidance will be reassessed and may be modified at the time of the

pandemic. "

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