Swine Flu Care May Swamp Health System, Senator Says (Update1)

By Pat Wechsler

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu “may be getting ahead of the public health system” because it is spreading so rapidly, causing illness and death, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman told public health officials today.

Lieberman, an independent legislator from Connecticut, and Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said at a hearing in Washington that they weren’t sure the U.S. was ready to fight the disease, as H1N1 vaccine production has slowed with 25 percent less supply of the H1N1 vaccine at the end of October than health officials expected.

Hospital emergency rooms may not be prepared and there may also be a shortage of the pediatric version of the antiviral drug Tamiflu made by Roche Holding AG, Collins said at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The committee is investigating whether the U.S. can cope with the H1N1 flu, which has already killed almost 300 people in 28 states, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta.

“The flu is moving very rapidly and while it seems to be affecting most people mildly, it is still affecting a minority very severely,” said Lieberman, the committee’s chairman. Public health officials may not be prepared to “adequately treat” victims at the peak of the U.S. outbreak, he said.

‘Surge of People’

Connecticut may see more than one million people contract H1N1 flu, with 17,300 hospitalizations, Lieberman said, quoting a study by the Washington-based nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health. That number is “150 percent” of the state’s hospital- bed capacity, Lieberman said.

“I want to stress my concern that hospitals and public health departments won’t have the capacity to care for the surge of people who may need hospitalization,” he said.

Maine also may not be prepared, with insufficient vaccine to cover the populations considered most at risk, such as children and pregnant women, Collins said.

She noted an outbreak at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where the number of students with swine flu jumped from six to 245 in a week.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that while there are vaccine delays, the “good news” is that people over the age of 10 years will need only one dose and that the immune response is being detected in eight to 10 days rather than two weeks.

“This disease only surfaced in April and we already have a robust vaccine available,” Sebelius told the committee.

Senate Investigation

The Senate committee is investigating whether the U.S. is prepared to adequately handle the H1N1 flu, which has already killed almost 300 people in 28 states, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control. As many as 5,000 have been hospitalized, with 53 percent of the patients under the age of 25, the CDC reported.

Sebelius said delays in vaccine shipments are occurring because of “glitches on the production lines.”

The U.S. has placed orders with at least four companies including Novartis AG in Basel, Switzerland; Sanofi-Aventis SA in Paris; AstraZeneca Plc in London, and CSL Ltd. in Melbourne.

“The fill and finish were not working as expected,” she said, referring to packaging of the vaccine. Sebelius said those problems have been addressed and the supply should increase “exponentially,” beginning next month.

Enough Vaccine Coming

“There will be enough vaccine for every American who wants to be vaccinated,” Sebelius said at the hearing.

The U.S. is too dependent on vaccine production in other countries as well as out-of-date technology, Sebelius said.

“We are committed to moving to cell-based technology,” she said. Vaccines are made now using eggs cultured with viruses. “We need something appropriate for the 21st century,” she said.

To help with the most severely ill flu victims, who sometimes don’t respond to antiviral medications or are too sick to take pills or use an inhaler, Sebelius told the committee that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will push out intravenous medication that may prove to be more effective on an “emergency use authorization” rather than waiting for the testing to be completed.

“This is among the highest priorities with the FDA and CDC,” she said. Sebelius said approval is “imminent” and may be days away.

IV Medicine

Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. is one of the companies testing an IV formulation of peramivir. While the drug performed no better than a placebo against seasonal influenza in a human medical trial, a CDC laboratory found it may work against swine flu, the Birmingham, Alabama company has said.

The antiviral drugs already in use include Roche’s Tamiflu pills and Glaxo’s Relenza, which is inhaled.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the committee that the government was starting undercover operations to root out sellers of phony treatments for the flu.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pat Wechsler in New York at trandall6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 21, 2009 14:13 EDT