Public Health Official Says Recall of Flu Mist Vaccine Not a Problem in Champaign County

A recall of nearly 5-million doses of H1N1 flu mist vaccine is not expected to impact the availability of the vaccine in Champaign-Urbana and Champaign County.

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator Julie Pryde says the recall -- including around 2-thousand doses in Champaign County --- is not due to any safety issues, but simply pertains to the vaccine's effectiveness if no administered by the end of January. The doses of flu mist are made by one manufacturer, Maryland-based MedImmune, which announced the recall. Pryde says her department still has plenty of other doses left of both the mist and injection forms of the vaccine. She also says anyone who received the recalled vaccine doesn't need to worry about its effectiveness.

Pryde says such recalls shouldn't come as a surprise.

"That's not unheard of, certainly for a live-virus vaccine to do that", says Pryde. "You have to keep it under very specific conditions, which we do. We monitor it constantly. The good thing about this is we have received plenty of vaccine now. If this had happened earlier, it could have really caused a problem, as far as people wanting it and not being able to get the vaccine."

So far, about 45-thousand people have been vaccinated for swine or H1N1 flu so far in Champaign County.

Meanwhile in Indiana, state health officials say about 110-thousand doses of the recalled vaccine were distributed --- but about 70-thousand have already been used. Indiana Health Commissioner Judy Monroe says the recalled vaccine poses no safety problems and children who received only one dose of the two-dose immunization series should complete the second dose.

(Additional reporting by the Associated Press)