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American Morning

Flu Containment Effort

Aired December 17, 2003 - 07:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn domestically now and talk about the flu as it continues its run across the United States. Federal health officials are hoping an additional 375,000 doses of the flu vaccine will help contain the outbreak.
In just a moment, we're going to talk with the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding.

But first, this report from CNN's Dan Lothian.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Doctors and nurses in emergency rooms across Massachusetts are facing congestion from the flu. As has been the case in other states this year, the flu has arrived early and, according to state health officials, has hit hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The emergency departments and the physician practices around the state are getting slammed.

LOTHIAN: The outbreak is described as widespread, the highest category.

DR. SUSAN LETT, MASSACHUSETTS DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It's a very sudden onset of fever, sore throat, dry cough.

LOTHIAN: Officials taking part in a health council Tuesday cautioned against calling the situation a crisis, but they are very concerned.

DR. AL DEMARIA, MASSACHUSETTS DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: And we don't know the full impact of this yet.

LOTHIAN: Across the country, fear of the flu has prompted extreme action. In Alabama, a judge has issued a gag order of sorts -- no sneezing, wheezing, hacking or coughing in the court.

JUDGE GLORIA GAHAKEL, ALABAMA CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: I don't want the jury exposed. We have a lot of juror older jurors that report for jury service.

LOTHIAN: In Minnesota, one school closed to clean up -- Lysol and bleach on everything from lab tables and lockers to water fountains and computer keyboards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bleach gets strong.

LOTHIAN: At least 26 states are experiencing a major flu outbreak, contributing to the deaths of almost 40 children. (on camera): With a shortage of the flu vaccine, federal health officials now say they'll ask Congress for $150 million over the next two years to prevent future problems. The goal? Push companies to find new ways to make the vaccine faster.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Joining us now from Atlanta to talk a little bit more about the flu outbreak and the efforts to contain it is Dr. Julie Gerberding. She is the director of the Centers for Disease Control.

Dr. Gerberding, nice to see you again. Thanks for joining us.

We heard just a moment ago in Dan Lothian's package that we're all being cautioned against calling it a crisis. But give me an assessment of just how bad it is. Or is it more a sense of the flu season started early, and that's why people are very concerned about it?

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: Well, the season did start early this year, and already we have widespread activity in those states that were on your red map. We will expect more states to turn red over the next couple weeks. But whether or not the season overall will be better or worse than average, it's just too soon to say.

O'BRIEN: It's not fair to say then that this particular strain of the flu is more virulent than strains in the past?

GERBERDING: Again, it's just too soon to say for sure. We do know that the predominant strain right now is an H3N2 strain, and sometimes in the past these strains have been associated with an overall more severe problem. That's one of the reasons why we got out so early and encouraged people to get their vaccine early in the season.

O'BRIEN: Outside of the flu vaccine, what other vaccines are running in low supply?

GERBERDING: Well, we have some concerns periodically about a variety of vaccines. Right now, we're keeping our eye on the vaccine for pneumococcal infection for children, because the manufacturer had run into some production problems. We are reassured that they're able to fill their back orders right now. But if things don't come back online as expected, we'll have to see whether additional steps are necessary to ensure an adequate supply of that vaccine.

O'BRIEN: The remaining flu shots -- flu vaccine, rather, we're told, are being reserved for the very young and the very elderly. Does that mean that people who sort of fall between those ranges should not get a flu shot if they have access to that?

GERBERDING: Well, we have two kinds of flu vaccine this year, and we are reserving the shots for the people who are in the high risk groups. But we still have a supply of FluMist. In fact, Secretary Thompson was able to secure that product at a very reduced rate, so that states and local health departments can purchase FluMist, which is the intranasal vaccine for those people who are not in the high risk group. So, people between the ages of 5 and 49 years old still can access the FluMist vaccine if they'd like to protect themselves.

O'BRIEN: We heard just a moment ago again in Dan Lothian's piece that federal officials are going to ask for an additional $150 million from Congress over the next couple of years so that they can prevent this from happening again -- running out or running low on the flu vaccine. Give me a sense of what the problem really is. Is it a matter of money? Is it a matter of just production problems?

GERBERDING: Well, we've got two problems to solve. One is that we're still making flu vaccine using pretty antiquated methods. The virus has to be grown in eggs, and that creates a bottleneck in both production and time. So, we've got to modernize our production methods, but we also simply need to incentivize manufacturers to make more doses of vaccine, so that when we have an unusual demand, we've got the capacity to scale-up the supply and meet that demand as quickly as possible.

O'BRIEN: The man who is the chief of the infectious diseases unit at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia said that people will die because they don't have access to the vaccine. Do you agree with that? Do you think that's true, that's going to happen?

GERBERDING: Well, you know, every year in this country, on average, 36,000 people die from influenza, whether or not we have the supplies of vaccine that we need. And that's a tragedy. We think there are 185,000 people who should be vaccinated. Many of these people could be spared hospitalization or lives could be saved if we were able to get the population of people who need vaccine to step up to the plate and get vaccinated every year.

Secretary Thompson and the CDC have been doing a number of things to try to encourage vaccine, including improving the reimbursement rates for clinicians who are taking care of our seniors and so forth. But I think if there is one good thing about the situation this year is that finally people realize that flu is a formidable foe, and we really need to do more to protect people against this problem.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Julie Gerberding joining us this morning. Thanks, Dr. Gerberding -- the head of the CDC obviously.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired December 17, 2003 - 07:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn domestically now and talk about the flu as it continues its run across the United States. Federal health officials are hoping an additional 375,000 doses of the flu vaccine will help contain the outbreak.
In just a moment, we're going to talk with the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding.

But first, this report from CNN's Dan Lothian.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Doctors and nurses in emergency rooms across Massachusetts are facing congestion from the flu. As has been the case in other states this year, the flu has arrived early and, according to state health officials, has hit hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The emergency departments and the physician practices around the state are getting slammed.

LOTHIAN: The outbreak is described as widespread, the highest category.

DR. SUSAN LETT, MASSACHUSETTS DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It's a very sudden onset of fever, sore throat, dry cough.

LOTHIAN: Officials taking part in a health council Tuesday cautioned against calling the situation a crisis, but they are very concerned.

DR. AL DEMARIA, MASSACHUSETTS DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: And we don't know the full impact of this yet.

LOTHIAN: Across the country, fear of the flu has prompted extreme action. In Alabama, a judge has issued a gag order of sorts -- no sneezing, wheezing, hacking or coughing in the court.

JUDGE GLORIA GAHAKEL, ALABAMA CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: I don't want the jury exposed. We have a lot of juror older jurors that report for jury service.

LOTHIAN: In Minnesota, one school closed to clean up -- Lysol and bleach on everything from lab tables and lockers to water fountains and computer keyboards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bleach gets strong.

LOTHIAN: At least 26 states are experiencing a major flu outbreak, contributing to the deaths of almost 40 children. (on camera): With a shortage of the flu vaccine, federal health officials now say they'll ask Congress for $150 million over the next two years to prevent future problems. The goal? Push companies to find new ways to make the vaccine faster.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Joining us now from Atlanta to talk a little bit more about the flu outbreak and the efforts to contain it is Dr. Julie Gerberding. She is the director of the Centers for Disease Control.

Dr. Gerberding, nice to see you again. Thanks for joining us.

We heard just a moment ago in Dan Lothian's package that we're all being cautioned against calling it a crisis. But give me an assessment of just how bad it is. Or is it more a sense of the flu season started early, and that's why people are very concerned about it?

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: Well, the season did start early this year, and already we have widespread activity in those states that were on your red map. We will expect more states to turn red over the next couple weeks. But whether or not the season overall will be better or worse than average, it's just too soon to say.

O'BRIEN: It's not fair to say then that this particular strain of the flu is more virulent than strains in the past?

GERBERDING: Again, it's just too soon to say for sure. We do know that the predominant strain right now is an H3N2 strain, and sometimes in the past these strains have been associated with an overall more severe problem. That's one of the reasons why we got out so early and encouraged people to get their vaccine early in the season.

O'BRIEN: Outside of the flu vaccine, what other vaccines are running in low supply?

GERBERDING: Well, we have some concerns periodically about a variety of vaccines. Right now, we're keeping our eye on the vaccine for pneumococcal infection for children, because the manufacturer had run into some production problems. We are reassured that they're able to fill their back orders right now. But if things don't come back online as expected, we'll have to see whether additional steps are necessary to ensure an adequate supply of that vaccine.

O'BRIEN: The remaining flu shots -- flu vaccine, rather, we're told, are being reserved for the very young and the very elderly. Does that mean that people who sort of fall between those ranges should not get a flu shot if they have access to that?

GERBERDING: Well, we have two kinds of flu vaccine this year, and we are reserving the shots for the people who are in the high risk groups. But we still have a supply of FluMist. In fact, Secretary Thompson was able to secure that product at a very reduced rate, so that states and local health departments can purchase FluMist, which is the intranasal vaccine for those people who are not in the high risk group. So, people between the ages of 5 and 49 years old still can access the FluMist vaccine if they'd like to protect themselves.

O'BRIEN: We heard just a moment ago again in Dan Lothian's piece that federal officials are going to ask for an additional $150 million from Congress over the next couple of years so that they can prevent this from happening again -- running out or running low on the flu vaccine. Give me a sense of what the problem really is. Is it a matter of money? Is it a matter of just production problems?

GERBERDING: Well, we've got two problems to solve. One is that we're still making flu vaccine using pretty antiquated methods. The virus has to be grown in eggs, and that creates a bottleneck in both production and time. So, we've got to modernize our production methods, but we also simply need to incentivize manufacturers to make more doses of vaccine, so that when we have an unusual demand, we've got the capacity to scale-up the supply and meet that demand as quickly as possible.

O'BRIEN: The man who is the chief of the infectious diseases unit at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia said that people will die because they don't have access to the vaccine. Do you agree with that? Do you think that's true, that's going to happen?

GERBERDING: Well, you know, every year in this country, on average, 36,000 people die from influenza, whether or not we have the supplies of vaccine that we need. And that's a tragedy. We think there are 185,000 people who should be vaccinated. Many of these people could be spared hospitalization or lives could be saved if we were able to get the population of people who need vaccine to step up to the plate and get vaccinated every year.

Secretary Thompson and the CDC have been doing a number of things to try to encourage vaccine, including improving the reimbursement rates for clinicians who are taking care of our seniors and so forth. But I think if there is one good thing about the situation this year is that finally people realize that flu is a formidable foe, and we really need to do more to protect people against this problem.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Julie Gerberding joining us this morning. Thanks, Dr. Gerberding -- the head of the CDC obviously.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.