Harford County officials are concerned about how few people seem to be getting the flu vaccine.
County Health Officer Andrew Bernstein said his agency ordered 6,500 doses but has only dispensed 2,500. He said that mirrors a national trend this year, though he wasn?t able to immediately cite statistics.
“We are looking at a whole host of problems” if people aren?t getting vaccinated, he said. “It?s clearly something you don?t have to die from,” Bernstein said of the fifth-leading cause of death in the U.S. annually.
Bernstein said a flu vaccine surplus could lead manufacturers to create less next year, leading to a shortage.
If a bird flu outbreak were to occur, and a person contracted both the bird and seasonal flu, the viruses could merge into one, becoming much more virulent, Bernstein said. He said a seasonal flu vaccination would prevent this and allow health care professionals to rule out seasonal flu for those who have been vaccinated, should the bird flu begin spreading.
Other county health departments in the Baltimore area also said they have noticed a drop in the number of people getting vaccinated.
“We have seen depressed numbers at our flu clinics,” said Gary Thompson, supervisor of the communicable disease division of the Baltimore County Health Department.
But he attributed the drop to people getting vaccinated through other health care providers ? personal doctors, pharmacists and others.
Carroll County?s director of communicable diseases, Debbie Middleton, said one reason why her agency has seen a drop in numbers ? almost 2,000 fewer than last year ? was because when the county went to order vaccines, the manufacturer was unable to get them to the county in time for its regular October flu clinics.
“The reality is, people want their flu vaccine in the first or second week in October, and because they could not get it through us, they went elsewhere,” she said.
