The American Academy of Pediatrics recently alerted pediatricians and parents 'that there will be a delay in getting flu shots for children 6 months of age through age 3 until at least November.'
The reason for the delay is that the Sanofi pasteur, the only manufacturer of flu shots for young children, had difficulty producing their flu shots because of poor growth of one of the strains of influenza in the flu shot. That basically means that it is taking longer to make their flu shots than they expected...
The bad news is that many pediatricians likely ordered all of their flu shots from Sanofi pasteur, so they might not have any, even for their older patients over age 3.
The good news is that there should be plenty of flu shots in November and into December, which should still be time for most children to get their flu shots before flu season peaks.
Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of the Fluzone flu shot for kids recently posted even more good news, saying that 'all remaining doses of the pediatric presentation of Fluzone Influenza Virus Vaccine for patients three years of age and younger are expected to be shipped within the next three weeks - by early November.'
So continue to check with your pediatrician through the end of October and early November to see if you can get your kids a flu shot, but don't be surprised if they might not be able to get one until a little later. Once your pediatrician's office actually gets their flu shots, it will still take some time to get all of their patients flu shots.
Also keep in mind that the current flu shot delays do not affect FluMist , the nasal spray flu vaccine, which can be given to healthy children over the age of 5.
