County Health Officials Working to Procure More Vaccine

FLORENCE- Pinal County Division of Public Health announced on Wednesday that they are currently working on acquiring more vaccine for the upcoming flu season.
The news comes after the revelation that British regulators had
taken away Chiron Corporation’s license for flu vaccine after finding
contamination at the company’s Liverpool vaccine plant. It is estimated that 48 million doses of flu vaccine will have to be destroyed.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is currently in the process of evaluating the supply versus actual needs of high risk populations in order to determine how the vaccine will be distributed. It is likely
that only individuals determined to be high risk will be vaccinated.
Those in the high-risk group include babies aged 6 months to 23
months, people over 65, pregnant women and people with chronic diseases.
Pinal County Public Health Officials are working with State and
Federal officials to secure more vaccine for the County’s high risk
population as determined by the CDC.
Currently the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) has
secured vaccine for children. However, available vaccine for the
children will be administered under the high risk population guidelines.
More information will become available once Pinal County Public
Health Officials have secured flu vaccine and the CDC guidelines are
finalized.