More than 38 million doses of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza are now available, 11 million more than were available last week and double the number available two weeks ago, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Another 8 million doses are expected to arrive next week “if everything goes well,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “That is progress. . . . As supplies increase, things should go better.”
About 91 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine also have been shipped, and manufacturers expect to ship a record 114 million doses before the season is over, she said.
There have been 129 pediatric deaths from laboratory-confirmed swine flu since the outbreak of the pandemic in April, an increase of 15 since last week.
