Officials Urge Widespread H1N1 Vaccination

Kate Traynor

BETHESDA, MD 17 December 2009—As the H1N1 vaccine supply improves, federal officials are asking Americans to get vaccinated now to protect themselves against a possible increase in flu activity in the months ahead.

"We have a chance to lessen the impact or even prevent a big third wave" of influenza, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Thursday.

"We need to seize that opportunity right now," she said.

Sebelius said the available supply of H1N1 vaccine will reach 100 million doses this week. She said many states have recently made vaccine available to their general population, and more states are expected to follow.

Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden said the country is in "an ebbing second wave" of influenza activity following an earlier wave this past spring, when the virus was first detected.

He called the prospects for a third wave uncertain, with scientific opinion divided as to whether influenza infections will increase after the new year.

Influenza season typically peaks in February, according to CDC surveillance data. But the agency warns that the current influenza season is not following the typical pattern. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus is causing nearly all influenza illness in the United States, and the flu season began months earlier than normal.

Frieden warned that during the 1957–8 influenza pandemic, many people became ill in the fall, but after that wave passed, people did not seek vaccination. The following spring, he said, there was a "very large increase in deaths from influenza and pneumonia."

CDC estimates that about 15% of the U.S. population have been infected with H1N1 so far, and that the vast majority of Americans thus remain at risk for infection.

Frieden said about 214,000 Americans, most of them young adults or children, have been hospitalized with H1N1 infection, and nearly 10,000 have died. He said death rates among younger people are five times as high as during a typical influenza season.

"There's lots of vaccine available and lots of people who can still benefit from being vaccinated," Frieden said.