Free vaccines still available
Alli Vail
Chief Staff Writer
A dip in the temperature in a Coast Garibaldi Health Services refrigerator means Squamish has no flu vaccines available for purchase for the rest of the season.
But those who qualify for free vaccines, including the elderly and families with infants, will still be able to get their flu shot in Squamish.
The accident, called a "cold chain break", caused the cancellation of a flu shot clinic last Friday (Nov. 5), said Jeanie Fraser, the public health nursing leader for the Sea to Sky corridor.
Biological vaccines need to be kept between 2 and 8 C.When the nurse arrived Friday morning and check the temperature, she noticed it had fallen slightly below 2 C. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control was notified, as per policy and the centre said the vaccines shouldn't be used.
"Some of them were OK, and many were not," Fraser said.
The health service unit uses a regular household fridge to store the vaccines.
"It's a very good fridge," Fraser said. "It's challenging to maintain the temperature because it's not your $10,000 pharmaceutical fridge."
The Coast Garibaldi Health Service has ordered a pharmaceutical fridge, but it will be several weeks before it arrives.
The existing fridge has been repaired and the temperature is checked multiple times during the day, with three thermometers reading the temperatures inside.
The fridge was being used frequently because of the community flu clinics, and was very full due to a government expansion in certain immunization programs, Fraser said.
"We had a lot because we had our flu vaccines, infant immunizations and the school immunizations.
"We monitor the quality of our vaccines very carefully and when there any potential for that quality to be impacted we take corrective measures."
The center has reordered enough vaccine for the rest of the season. It initially ordered 3,750 vaccines, but many of those had already been used. Last season, around 3,150 vaccines for the year were ordered.
Fraser managed to acquire 320 doses of vaccine for the flu shot clinic on Nov. 9. The rest of the vaccines used for free flu shot clinics will be ordered from the BC Centre for Disease Control.
The only change is there will be no vaccine available for purchase. Only those who qualify for free flu shots will be able to get shots.
The vaccine for sale can only be purchased once a year, and those vaccines suffered in the cold chain break, Fraser said.
Fraser said although there has been an "increased uptake" in people getting flu shots, there is not a shortage of vaccine in the Sea to Sky corridor.
"My understanding is there is increased demand, but also in the past there was a 10-week period where people would get the flu vaccine," she said.
Now people are getting their shots in a four-week period, she said.
