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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> Currently, 11.4 million doses of the vaccine are available, and 8 million of those doses have been ordered by the states, Schuchat said. Ultimately, the government hopes to dispense 190 million doses by the end of the year, federal officials have said.
The first doses of swine flu vaccine, which became available earlier this month, were in the form of a nasal spray called FluMist, which is for people 2 to 49 years old who are not pregnant and do not have chronic medical conditions. Now, slightly more than half of the vaccine doses are in injectable form, which makes the vaccine available to more people, Schuchat said.
In addition to children, those who should be near the front of the line for a swine flu shot include pregnant women, people who care for young children, health-care workers, and people with chronic medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.
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Schuchat also urged people to get vaccinated for the regular seasonal flu. Eighty-two million doses of the seasonal flu vaccine have been distributed, with a total goal of 114 million doses. "So 71 percent of the doses that are going to be produced have already been distributed," she said.
Schuchat added that it's not too late to get a seasonal flu shot since the seasonal flu season has not yet started, and the H1N1 flu continues to be the dominant strain in circulation.
On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to use caution when buying products over the Internet that claim to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure the H1N1 flu. Often, these products aren't what they claim to be or are illegal to sell in the United States.
For example, the agency found that pills from India that claimed to be the antiviral drug Tamiflu actually contained talc and acetaminophen, but no Tamiflu.
"Products that are offered for sale online with claims to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus must be carefully evaluated," FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg said in a prepared statement. "Medicines purchased from Web sites operating outside the law put consumers at increased risk due to a higher potential that the products will be counterfeit, impure, contaminated, or have too little or too much of the active ingredient."
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