Deja vu all over again

February 1, 2010  |   Posted in Blog, Infectious Diseases   |   0 Comments   Tags: Greensboro, Guilford County, H1N1 Vaccination, High Point, Recall, Sanofi Pasteur, vaccination, vaccine

On Friday, 29 January 2010, the Guilford County Department of Public Health received notice of another “recall” of influenza vaccine…again.

Some of the vaccine in the “recall” came to Guilford County…again.

Not to worry. It is not a safety recall, nor was there anything wrong with
the vaccine that has been given so far.

The company which manufactured the vaccine, Sanofi Pasteur, monitors the potency of their vaccine. They set a level of potency that is considered adequate to produce an immune reaction. That level is much higher than the amount of potency to actually do its job.

So they had a predetermined margin of error built into the system. If the level of potency dropped below a given amount, they ask for it back. The vaccines already given have done their job and don’t need to be repeated. There isn’t a problem with those who have been given the vaccine to date.
(It’s not a “safety” recall.)

Another way of looking at it is as simple as ABC.
A is the level at which the vaccine was released.
B is the level at which the vaccine is still good, but seems to be losing strength.
C is the level at which the vaccine isn’t good anymore as it’s lost too much of its potency.

A is greater than B which is greater than C. And B is where some of the lots are now.

So the medical practices in the area that have received the vaccine listed in the recall simply need to take it out of their refrigerator and send it back to Sanofi Pasteur for a replacement. No patients need to be called or need to repeat their vaccines.

Another way to think about this is milk in a refrigerator. When you buy milk there is an expiration date on the carton. If you pull the carton out of the refrigerator, it looks and smells fine and the expiration date is in a week…no problem. If it looks and smells fine and the expiration date is yesterday, you don’t want to drink the milk…even if it would probably be okay. Same thing now with the vaccine…

So what the company has done is move up the expiration date. Rather than expiring next month, Sanofi Pasteur has declared that the vaccine is going “bad” faster than it had hoped. So its telling us…”we’re moving the expiration date to today. Send us back what you have on hand”.

When you think about it, it’s nice that the company is keeping track so closely. It means that when we get the vaccine, it will work and it will be safe.