According to top health officials, current productions of the H1N1 vaccine are not going as planned.

During a recent news conference, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, announced that vaccine supplies aren’t where they were expected to be at this point.

"We hoped to have around 40 million doses by the end of (October), but it’s hard to predict how many we will have," Schuchat said.

Despite companies "making unprecedented numbers of vaccines," H1N1 supplies will most likely fall around 10-12 million short of the initial 40 million goal.

The news of a vaccine shortfall doesn’t sit well with many, including U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, who has written a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the topic.

"As you know, over 540 Georgians have already been hospitalized and 27 people have lost their life as a result of this virus. Now listed as a state with ‘widespread’ outbreaks of H1N1 influenza, I as well as the citizens of Georgia remain acutely aware of the ongoing situation and the hazard for infection we face in carrying out our daily lives," Deal said in his letter.
"As a national effort to vaccinate individuals identified by the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to be at the highest risk for serious illness is currently underway, I am interested to know what steps are being taken by the administration to ensure adequate supply of the H1N1 vaccine is present for these targeted individuals and what safeguards are being put into place to ensure a shortage does not exist as eligibility requirements are expanded in the future."

According to health officials, producing influenza vaccines — including the H1N1 strain — is a lengthy process. Although new techniques are being tested, currently the only process that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration is the same one that was used more than 60 years ago. To produce the vaccine, the virus is injected into chicken eggs, so that it can reproduce.

Once the virus replicates, it’s harvested from the eggs and either killed and cut down into smaller pieces for the injectable vaccine, or it is left alive for the nasal-spray vaccine. When grown for the live-virus nasal-spray vaccine, the virus is grown in the eggs at a lower temperature so that it is weakened.

Currently, the H1N1 nasal-spray vaccine is the only one available for distribution; the shot version is expected to be available soon. In the mean time, in accordance with the expanded guidelines from the CDC, the District 2 Public Health Departments — which includes Hall County — have increased vaccination availability.

Instead of the vaccine just being available for 2- to 4-year-olds, it is now also available for people who live with or care for infants up to 6 months old, health care workers and emergency medical services personnel with direct patient contact.

"These are the priority groups identified by the (CDC) to be offered the first doses of the H1N1 vaccine because they are either at greater risk for complications if they catch the disease, or because they have close contact with individuals in the high-risk groups," said Dr. David Westfall, District 2 director.

"This is a massive and complicated vaccination operation; one that requires coordination between public health, private health providers, vaccine manufacturers and medical distributors and is one of the largest vaccination efforts our nation has seen."

As of last week, more than 11.4 million H1N1 vaccinations had been allocated for distribution throughout the U.S. So far, Georgia has received around 204,700 vaccinations.