Vaccine recall affects few in Sarasota area

David Gulliver - posted 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15; updated 4:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Update: The four Sarasota-area practitioners who had vaccine directly shipped to them did not receive any from the recalled lots, the county Health Department said.

Only a small amount of the now-recalled H1N1 swine flu vaccine was given to Sarasota County children, county health officials said late Tuesday.

The recall, announced Tuesday, was issued because the vaccine is slightly less potent than intended. It has nothing to do with safety or quality, officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The recall is of a narrow subset of the vaccine: Pre-filled syringes, free of the preservative thimerosal, with dosages for children ages six months to 35 months. The recall covers about 800,000 doses distributed nationwide, some 40,000 of them in Florida.

The Sarasota County Health Department received about 1,050 doses of the vaccine, of which only 125 were used in the department’s clinics, spokeswoman Dianne Shipley said.

The department also recently gave 200 of the doses to local practitioners, who reported that they had not yet used it, Shipley said. The department is reclaiming it Wednesday.

“The sad story is that we lose a thousand doses that we could have given to the community,” said Chuck Henry, the environmental health specialist heading the local flu response. But the decreased supply will not affect the department’s daily open vaccination clinics, he said.

The recall could have somewhat wider effects. Four doctors’ offices appear to have had the vaccine shipped to them directly from distributors, Henry said. But the county health department could not immediately confirm the number of doses involved, how many were used, or the physicians’ names, because it had no role in the delivery.

The vaccine’s manufacturer told CDC officials on Dec. 7 that its tests found antigen levels in three lots of the vaccine had fallen over time to slightly below the target standard.

Officials were quick to dispel concerns over quality. “We wanted to let parents know that this is not a recall for safety.  Children who were vaccinated with these specific lots of vaccine do not need to be re-vaccinated,” Florida Surgeon General Ana Viamonte Ros said in a prepared statement. 

CDC and state officials said children who received the recalled vaccine do not need to be have that dose given again, but all children under age 10 should get the already-recommended second dose. For more information, review this document on the CDC website.