Pharmacies busy with vaccine demand
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / STAR-ADVERTISER
Cody Botelho got his hepatitis A vaccination from Alanna Isobe, pharmacy manager at Safeway in Kapahulu, on Thursday. Isobe said the waiting line has remained steady but that there is an adequate supply.
Some Oahu pharmacies are seeing a surge in hepatitis A vaccine requests after state officials this week reported the source of the ongoing outbreak, which has sickened 206 people with the virus.
At the Safeway store in Kapahulu, for example, pharmacy manager Alanna Isobe said on Wednesday it administered about 100 hepatitis A shots, compared with about 80 per day prior to the state’s announcement late Monday.
On Thursday the state Department of Health announced that federal laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of hepatitis A virus in scallops that the DOH had identified as the likely source of the outbreak in Hawaii.
The Health Department blocked the sale and distribution of Sea Port Bay Scallops (Wild Harvest, Raw Frozen) in the state this week, right after concluding they were the probable cause of the outbreak.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration tested the product, and results came back positive Thursday. The scallops were produced by De Oro Resources Inc. in Suba Basbas, Philippines, and imported by Sea Port Products Corp. in Washington state.
Health authorities closed Genki Sushi restaurants on Oahu and Kauai late Monday because the scallops had been served there.
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In a news release state Health Director Dr. Virginia Pressler said, “The corroboration by the FDA of our data analysis and conclusions provides welcome and critical evidence for our continuing investigation work.”
Anyone who may have consumed the tainted scallops is advised to contact their primary health care provider about receiving a vaccine or immune globulin, which could provide some protection against the liver disease if given within two weeks of exposure. Vaccination is the best protection against hepatitis A. Hand washing can also help prevent the spread of the virus.
In the release, state Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said, “We are continuing efforts to end this outbreak by working to assure no other product is left in the state and to monitor for those who unfortunately may have been infected and do not yet have symptoms.”
The waiting line for vaccinations remained steady at the Kapahulu Safeway’s pharmacy Thursday. “We’ve been very busy,” Isobe said.
Vaccine-related phone calls are also inundating the pharmacy, Isobe said. For every shot a staff member administers, she said, the pharmacy gets about four phone calls concerning the vaccine.
Isobe stressed that no one should fret about whether there’s enough hepatitis A vaccine. “We have adequate supplies,” she said.
Chris Wong, a pharmacist at Times Supermarket in Kahala, said the pharmacy has been “consistently busy” due to the spike in vaccine requests.
Wong said the pharmacy held a clinic Wednesday with additional staff who gave shots to about 30 people. Another clinic scheduled for next week is booked, and plans are in the works to schedule additional clinics. “We’re trying to accommodate as many (people) as possible,” he said.
A statewide list of pharmacies offering hepatitis A vaccine is available at bit.ly/1oiTEZL.
6 responses to “Pharmacies busy with vaccine demand”
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A vital tool to stop an actual outbreak; to those with borderline liver function or immunity compromised individuals hepatitis A can be very liver function threatening.
Has there been any confirmation that all 206 known infected people actually ate the tainted scallops to contract the hepatitis A virus or did they get infected secondarily from another infected person? Did the infected workers in the other restaurants also eat the tainted scallops? This information should be disclosed do that the public can get some kind of indication as to the levels of possible exposure risk. Do people have to actually be in physical contact with an infected person to get exposed? Does the presence of an infected person cause an environment to be deemed contaminated such as a kitchen or restroom where others in these areas are now considered exposed? When was the last day that the tainted scallops were served? It would seem that anyone would ate the scallops should get tested in addition to getting the immunization. If people wait for symptoms before getting tested, they may be unknowingly exposing others if they are indeed infected.
All these questions can be answered by visiting the CDC website concerning Hep A under F-A-Q’s’ and no I not swearing at U. If people are that LoLo in this State that they don’t know how to look up the info for themselves, then wow Lau Lau!
BTW, you one handsome buggah Cody!
As far as Hep A, the horse has already left the barn and the spread of this disease will increase exponentially. I would expect also that a number of cases will turn up in tourists who visited here
in the next two weeks or so if this is not happening already but not reported here by the drive by media. Such a disclosure would obviously be bad for business but is very likely in that it took so
long for the DOH to find the initial source of the infection. Those infected have now spread the disease to many unsuspecting others who in turn will invariably infect others and on and on it goes.
The only way to stem this outbreak will be fairly large scale inoculation with the vaccine. Those in the general public who are awake are already doing so on their own.
Whoever the pharmacist is at Longs Drugs Manoa that is handling the vaccination, he’s a real tool. Very rude, even to the elderly woman waiting in line with me who needed help filling out the paperwork. Learn some bedside manners if you’re going to work in healthcare industry.