Flu vaccines plentiful this season

This time last year, shortages of H1N1 flu vaccines caused some people to search in vain for available doses. But this season, the strain has been incorporated into the regular inoculation and demand is surprisingly low, experts said Tuesday.

"When there is a shortage people want it, but when there is plenty around there seems to be less demand," said Dr. Laurie Ward, who chairs community medicine at Nassau University Medical Center and coordinates flu vaccination programs with Nassau County's health department. NUMC will sponsor one more flu clinic for the public this year on Dec. 2.

Experts say with less panic associated with H1N1 this year some people may be less inspired to get vaccinated.

The H1N1 strain is still circling the globe, triggering bouts of the flu worldwide but influenza activity in New York, like most of the rest of the country is low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC no longer considers H1N1 a pandemic strain.

For the week ending Nov. 13, the most recent complete period for flu surveillance in New York, the state health department documented an exceptionally low number of cases: 57 cases of influenza A, which can be either of two strains of the flu H1N1 or H3N2; eight cases of influenza B and two cases of an unknown strain.

Dr. Eli N. Avila, deputy health commissioner for Suffolk County, noted that there has been no appreciable flu activity in the region. But it is still early and he said it's impossible to predict the extent of the flu season.

"Flu viruses are very unpredictable," he said. "You see most cases later in the season and higher mortality in February and March."

Also, he added, there may not be much flu activity statewide because there is residual immunity among those who were vaccinated late in the season last year. As with NUMC and the Nassau County Health Department, Avila and his colleagues are planning flu clinics next month. Suffolk will have held 37 by the end of the year.

Dr. Gary Leonardi, director of the virology laboratory at NUMC, leads a regionwide flu surveillance program that tests respiratory specimens from people on Long Island and as far away as Staten Island. He says activity is so low he has identified only one positive flu sample in recent weeks, a case of influenza A in a baby. The infection was not H1N1, but the H3 strain, he said.

Leonardi added that incorporating H1N1 into the seasonal vaccine this year made sense because the virus is stabilizing into the pattern of seasonal flu viruses. "This year we're seeing the traditional pattern," he said.

He added that along with H1N1's change to a seasonal pattern, there has been a reversal of typical vulnerabilities. Last year, elderly people were spared infection while healthy young adults and children were hardest-hit by the flu. This year, he said, with more common H3 strains more in circulation, the elderly are again among those at highest risk.