Reuters Posted online: Friday, December 12, 2003 at 1513 hours IST
Washington, December 12: The flu is spreading across the United States and the government is concerned enough to buy up 250,000 available doses of vaccine to make sure it goes to those who need it most, officials said on Thursday.
But the influenza season is not especially serious yet and has not reached the level of an epidemic, said Dr Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nonetheless, Gerberding and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said they were happy with the media attention being given to the flu.
"There has been a greatly increased interest in the flu this year. We hope that translates into more people, especially those at high risk, getting their flu shots early in future years," Thompson told a news conference.
"There is no evidence that this particular flu season or this particular Fujian strain of influenza that we are dealing with is any more dangerous than similar strains that we have dealt with in the past," Gerberding added.
"This is flu and this is the kind of situation that we have seen over and over again."
Thompson said his department had bought 100,000 doses of influenza vaccine from Aventis Pasteur, one of two companies that makes injectable flu vaccines, and was distributing it to state health departments.
HHS bought another 150,000 doses of vaccine formulated for young children, which would be available from the company in January, Thompson said.
In an average year influenza kills 36,000 Americans, mostly the elderly, very young children and people with other diseases.
