Press Releases: Northwest
October 19, 2004
Kaiser Permanente gives flu shots to over 20,000 people in the Northwest on first day of vaccination campaign
Supplies expected to last at least through Tuesday, Oct. 19
PORTLAND, Ore. – Concerns about a national shortage of flu vaccine helped prompt more than 20,000 people in Oregon and Washington state to get their flu shots on the first day of Kaiser Permanente's annual flu vaccination campaign. The health care organization offered free flu shots to its health plan members starting Monday, Oct. 18, at a dozen of its facilities in Portland, Beaverton, Clackamas, Hillsboro, Tualatin, Salem, Vancouver, and Longview, Wash. Assuming demand doesn't increase, Kaiser Permanente expects to have enough vaccine to last at least through the end of today.
Although nurses began administering the shots at 8 a.m., many people had lined up before dawn to ensure they received their shot. Extra nursing staff had been assigned to staff the flu clinics in anticipation of large turnout. At many medical offices, up to 200 people an hour were being vaccinated throughout the morning. At the Kaiser Sunnyside campus in Clackamas, staff passed out cookies, served coffee, and handed out blankets to people waiting in lines that were at peak times more than 300 people long.
The overwhelming majority of people coming to Kaiser Permanente for flu shots fell into one of the eight high-risk categories for whom the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says flu vaccine should be reserved:
- people with chronic health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, Ore. asthma
- women who will be pregnant during the flu season
- infants and toddlers between 6 months and 2 years of age
- children from 6 months to 18 years old who are on chronic aspirin therapy
- out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children less than 6 months old
- people over age 65
- residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities
- health care workers who provide direct patient care
Kaiser Permanente had ordered over 100,000 doses of vaccine from Aventis Pasteur earlier this year, more than enough to meet demand in a typical year. About half that amount had been received in the Northwest Region of Kaiser Permanente before the announcement last week that the British government was pulling the license of Chiron, which makes just under half the flu vaccine for the United States. The result was an immediate national shortfall of vaccine. Kaiser Permanente has been informed by its flu shot supplier that no further deliveries of vaccine can be expected while the federal government decides where undelivered vaccine should be distributed.
For the latest information about flu shots at Kaiser Permanente, from the Portland area please call 503-813-2000 and press 6, Ore. from outside the Portland area call 1-800-813-2000 and press 6.
