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2,154 vaccinations from Centerville H1N1 clinic need to be re-done

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William Wharton Doses of H1N1 vaccine.

County schedules new clinic Dec. 29 at former Showcase Cinemas

By Jeremy P. Kelley, Staff Writer Updated 2:15 AM Tuesday, December 22, 2009

More than two-thirds of the people vaccinated at the Dec. 17 H1N1 clinic in Centerville are being encouraged to get revaccinated because of concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine they received.

Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County announced Monday, Dec. 21, that some of that vaccine apparently was frozen at one time, which makes the vaccine lose its potency. Public Health spokesman Bill Wharton said those doses of vaccine may not prevent H1N1, but there are no additional safety concerns as a result of receiving frozen vaccine.

The 2,154 people who received injectable vaccine between 2 and 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 17 at the former Showcase Cinemas are the ones affected. Public Health is making automated phone calls to those 2,154 people to notify them of the problem, and will follow up with letters.

The other 1,020 people who were vaccinated that day — children 6 to 35 months, those who received the nasal mist, and those who got the injectable vaccine after 5:30 p.m., received effective vaccine, Wharton said. The clinic ran from 2 to 7 p.m.

Public Health will host another free H1N1 vaccination clinic for Montgomery County residents from 2 to 6 p.m. Dec. 29 at Showcase Cinema at Cross Pointe Center in Centerville. Wharton said residents can also call their own physicians to see if they have doses of the H1N1 vaccine. Wharton said a growing number of physicians have vaccine available, although there is usually a cost.

What happened Dec. 17?

Wharton said Public Health officials were three hours into the Dec. 17 clinic, working their way through a storage box of 3,000 vaccine units, when they noticed frozen vials below the top layers of the box.

“Since some were frozen at that time, the only safe procedure is to assume more of them may have been frozen earlier.” Wharton said.

Public Health Medical Director Dr. Thomas Herchline said in a statement that clinic officials immediately switched to a different batch of vaccine when they found the problem.

Herchline said the acceptable temperature range for the H1N1 vaccine is 35 to 46 degrees, and Wharton said the doses were kept at that temperature while under the control of Montgomery County, which has temperature-sensitive warning devices on its refrigerated storage units

Wharton said Public Health got the vaccine in question from the Franklin County Health Department the day before the clinic. He said Franklin County had received that batch of vaccine from a manufacturer, via distribution channels, only three hours before Montgomery County picked it up.

Wharton said according to Franklin County officials, the temperature-sensitive cards that are shipped with the vaccine showed no temperature problem.

The problem of vaccine being stored outside acceptable temperatures has popped up elsewhere in the country, but this is the first case Public Health is aware of in Ohio.

The next steps

Montgomery County Health Commissioner Jim Gross apologized for the inconvenience to those affected, and said Public Health and state officials are investigating exactly where in the manufacture or delivery process the vaccine was frozen. He stressed that after vaccinating nearly 100,000 people this year, the Dec. 17 clinic was the only instance of this problem.

Wharton urged the 2,154 people affected to come back to the Dec. 29 clinic, saying their paperwork has been saved and they will be processed quickly.

“We still want those people to be revaccinated, because it’s the only way to be protected (from H1N1 flu),” Wharton said.

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