The United States will begin a massive campaign to combat Swine Flu--the A(H1N1) virus, as it is also known--to vaccinate millions of Americans against it, commencing the distribution of the first 600,000 doses manufactured by MedImmune, a division of AstraZeneca, reports say.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed to have received the vaccine orders from 25 areas across the country--among the 50 states and four metros identified in the CDC program.
Anne Schuchat, CDC deputy director, said Thursdsay her organization placed the initial vaccine orders Wednesday, and would receive them by next Tuesday.
She added this was the beginning as the country transited from planning to implementation. She allayed concerns about the safety of the vaccine, saying it was being produced exactly the same way that the seasonal flu vaccines were being manufactured, with exactly the same careful oversight.
The initial roll-out, about two weeks earlier than expected, is a big relief to health experts, who feared a late arrival could potentially place millions of Americans at risk.
The vaccine should be effective against A (H1N1) within eight days; of this, the first dose will be in the nasal spray form described by health experts as safe for adults up to 49 years, and for children two years and above, who were not suffering from asthma.
Schuchat expects health workers--on the front lines of the battle against a virus that has claimed more than 3,900 lives worldwide since it was uncovered in April this year--to be the first ones to receive the vaccine.
The CDC announcement came soon after the U.S. government announced last week it expected to have seven million doses from five manufacturers available in the first week of October with production quickly ramped up after that. In all, 250 million doses eventually will be available at 90,000 sites throughout the country.
Switzerland's Novartis announced Thursday it had begun delivering the first batch of swine flu shots to the United States, which ordered its US$ 979 million worth of Fluviron H1N1 vaccine.
While spray vaccines will be the first to reach vaccination sites, pregnant women, who are at special risk from all forms of influenza, will have to wait until later this month for the injection version as clinical trials for pregnant women tested with the vaccine are expected to be completed only by the month-end.
Schuchat said 100 pregnant women were hospitalized in intensive care units with the virus; of them 28 died.
The U.S. government has warned that swine flu could infect up to half the country's population of 300 million this fall and winter, as also cause up to 90,000 deaths.
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