Agencies And Health Departments Prepare For Swine Flu

Governments and drug companies are struggling with efforts to prepare for a possible resurgence of swine flu in the fall as well as questioning who should receive swine flu vaccines as they ramp up production. The Boston Globe reports on low stockpiles as disease trackers prepare for the fall to see how the swine strain develops. The paper reports: “The arrival of swine flu in the United States exposed gaps in the supply chain that delivers medication, masks, and even testing swabs to hospitals and doctors’ offices – shortcomings that could prove vastly more worrisome if a deadlier strain returns in the fall, officials say. In Massachusetts, where the state health agency had to tap its emergency cache of flu-relief pills to supplement dwindling private supplies, the administration of Governor Deval Patrick is asking the Legislature to spend $1 million more to bolster the state stockpile, a request that is pending.” The paper also notes: “The experience with swine flu has underscored how the agencies responsible for corralling dangerous germs often have no way of assuring whether pharmaceutical and medical supply companies have stocks sufficient to satisfy demand.”

Later this month, five dozen health officers will convene in Massachusetts to analyze the handling of swine flu. Massachusetts health authorities have noted that supply shortages tended to be localized and that nation’s health system didn’t experience major upheaval. The Boston Globe also notes: “Disease specialists fear that the appearance of twin flu strains could sorely tax the nation’s healthcare system, which faced episodic supply shortages since the first cases of swine flu were diagnosed. In the early days of the epidemic, Massachusetts doctors reported that some patients had trouble getting prescriptions filled for Tamiflu – the main medication used to treat the novel virus – as drug-store reserves ran low. As a result, the state Department of Public Health distributed enough antiviral medication from its stockpile to treat the flu or prevent it in 53,000 patients. Some hospitals said shelves usually brimming with surgical masks, used to slow the virus’ transmission, turned barren – and suppliers proved unable to replenish supplies in the standard 24-hour timeframe. Hospitals sometimes found themselves in competition with each other for supply reinforcements, and there were instances when departments within the same medical center raced to get their orders in first” (Smith, 6/15).

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