Flu vaccine shortage increases ER fears
Hospital Safety Connection, October 22, 2004
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Emergency room doctors anticipate overwhelming problems with sick and elderly patients this season because of the flu vaccine shortage, the Times Union reported.
The American College of Emergency Physicians planned to meet this week in San Francisco to determine how emergency rooms could obtain extra resources to help flu patients.
"On any given night or day, in major cities across the country, emergency departments are swamped with patients," Arthur Kellermann, MD, professor and chairman of emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, told the Times Union. "Where will we find the hospital capacity to handle potentially hundreds of thousands of flu victims who will need at least evaluation and possibly hospital care?""
The bacterial contamination of almost 50% of this year's flu vaccine is an emergency alone, hospital officials say. Even with flu vaccine rationing, doctors fear that the typical 36,000 flu-related deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations will increase.
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