“We are temporarily out of vaccines...”

That’s the message from DHEC’s Newberry County office and other local healthcare providers who are out of the shot against the regular seasonal flu.

And the blame may fall on the newer addition to the flu family, H1N1.

Ample talk of the novel H1N1 swine flu may have alerted more people to the benefits of a flu shot, says Suzanne Sanders, public information officer for Department of Health and Environmental Control Region 3.

“People are having that conversation about the importance of getting a flu shot,” Sanders says. “We’re seeing a big demand this year. People are just being extra cautious.”

Another reason for the shortage is that people at the national level recommended that healthcare workers give the shot earlier in the flu season, says Les Parks, practice manager at Newberry Family Health Center.

Compared to last year, Parks says he hasn’t seen more demand for the shot, but that the timeframe change highlights a shortage.

Typically, the doctor’s office gives seasonal flu shots starting in October, but the Center for Disease Control said to begin vaccinating a month earlier in September, says Parks.

“We kind of ran out typically before we would even start giving them,” he said.

But a combo of more flu talk, higher vaccine demand and earlier shot dates is just part of the issue.

The shortage is also because the newly-minted H1N1 vaccine is made by the same companies that make the regular flu protection. The double demand has clogged the pipeline flow, said Jim Beasley, DHEC spokesman.

“Right now they’re experiencing a few distribution glitches,” he said. “It’s the same distribution chain.”

And though Beasley isn’t aware of other counties running low on the shot like Newberry, he says there has been “a good solid demand” for the regular flu vaccine.

Some local pharmacy workers can’t even get it for themselves.

LoRex Pharmacy annually orders about 20 shots for its workers, but this year their request remains unfulfilled.

“The drug wholesaler that we use, they haven’t been able to get it in,” says Angela Jackson, LoRex store manager.

So LoRex workers, along with the approximately 35 on Newberry Family Health Center’s flu shot waiting list, wait.

The next vaccine shipment is expected in late October or early in November, Parks said.

H1N1 news

Not long after the H1N1 shot comes down the manufacturer’s production line, the vaccine is divided up and sent out to states depending on the population of “prioritized” people groups, said Jim Beasley, DHEC spokesman.

The federal government, which is paying for the H1N1 vaccine, says certain people need the shot more than others. So the number of pregnant women, healthcare workers and youth between the ages six months to 17 years in a state determines how much of the vaccine that state will get.

And the shipments are small to begin with.