State health officials were scrambling Wednesday to find doses of flu vaccine for the most vulnerable Kansans.

The Douglas County Health Department, which exhausted its supply Monday morning, also was looking.

“We have people calling constantly,” said Elaine Houston, the department’s immunization coordinator.

Replenishing local supplies is an increasing challenge amid a national frenzy to get flu shots as a severe and early outbreak of the contagious respiratory illness spreads.

Gail Hansen, deputy state epidemiologist in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the agency would redouble efforts today to promote its voluntary clearinghouse for the exchange of information from clinics, hospitals and health offices holding extra vaccine to those in short supply.

The goal is to help find enough to give shots to Kansans at high risk for contracting influenza. That list includes children age 6 months to 2 years, pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses and folks at least 65 years old.

A new section of the KDHE Web site was launched Wednesday that allows health care providers to alert officials if they need vaccine, as well as notify officials if extra vaccine is available. Health care workers without Internet access can coordinate with the health department via a toll-free number.

Nationally, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is conducting a similar effort.

Kills thousands annually

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“What we’re trying to do is make sure people are aware that it makes the most sense to get the most vulnerable population vaccinated,” Hansen said.

More than 36,000 Americans die annually of complications from influenza, according to the CDC. About 1,600 Kansans died of influenza- and pneumonia-related illness between October 2002 and May 2003.

As of Wednesday, at least nine children have died from the flu in Colorado. Some parts of Texas and Nevada have been hit hard a month earlier than usual. In Kansas, one flu-related death has been confirmed.

In Douglas County, the health department distributed more than 6,500 doses of vaccine before running out.

Houston, the immunization coordinator, was counting on shipment of as many as 700 doses Wednesday, but only a small amount was received and that was passed to Lawrence Memorial Hospital to replace borrowed vaccine.

“There is some out there in the pipeline,” she said. “We’re literally waiting for the mail.”

The Hy-Vee store at Sixth Street and Monterey Way still had a supply Wednesday of nasal mist vaccine. Houston said the mist was recommended only for healthy people ages 5 through 59. That excludes those considered most at risk from the flu.

Spreading in schools

In Lawrence public schools, the flu is working its way through the student body, officials said. But a complete report on absences could not be produced Wednesday because two student database technicians missed work due to the flu.

However, a summary of attendance at 13 of the district’s 15 elementary schools — excluding Sunset Hill and Deerfield — indicated 285 students were absent from school Tuesday. That number jumped to 671 Wednesday, but bad weather was probably driving the big increase, officials said.

Hansen said she wouldn’t recommend closing schools to prevent spread of flu.

“That’s not really worked well,” she said.

Production cutback

Manufacturers of the flu vaccine produced 95 million doses last year, but ended up discarding 12 million unused doses.

Two makers of vaccine, Aventis Pasteur and Chiron Corp., reduced production to 83 million doses this year to try to meet expected demand. All those doses have been shipped to distributors.

The vaccine is usually 80 percent effective in preventing illness from the influenza virus.

Hansen said it was unclear whether the nation was experiencing the peak of the influenza season or just the beginning of an extraordinary outbreak.

“I’ll know in March,” she said.

Alternative advice

Hansen said it was a mistake to think all Kansans needed to be vaccinated.

“We tend to put all our eggs into the vaccine basket,” she said. But other steps can be taken to prevent spread of the flu.

Her recommendations: Wash hands before or after coming in contact with people and after sneezing or coughing. Limit contact with large crowds of people and stay at home if experiencing flu-like symptoms.

Symptoms include fever above 100 degrees, extreme tiredness, body aches, dry cough, sore throat and nasal congestion.

Complicating treatment is the spread in the United States and other countries of the “Fujian” strain of the virus, which this year’s vaccine doesn’t fully protect against. The vaccine is designed to tackle the “Panama” strain.

There have been reports that both strains have been diagnosed in Lawrence, Houston said.