Faced with the severity of the flu epidemic, the Directorate General of Health is calling on pharmacists to vaccinate people at risk and those around them. To be able to vaccinate everyone who wishes, additional doses of vaccines are gradually being made available. Doctors ask for stocks in their offices.
France is experiencing a sharp surge in cases of contamination by the flu virus and the hospital system is overwhelmed: 87 white plans have been activated, Minister of Health Yannick Neuder announced on January 14. The Directorate General of Health (DGS) is therefore calling for mobilization.
In an urgent message dated January 13, she calls on health professionals, and in particular community pharmacists, “to intensify communication with their patients, particularly those at risk” to remind people of barrier gestures and encourage vaccination. According to Public Health France, as of January 8, 79% of cases admitted to intensive care for flu, and for which vaccination status was provided, were not vaccinated.
However, today there is a shortage of vaccines in pharmacies. 30% of pharmacies no longer have doses, said Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), to AFP. “50% of doses are at 10% of pharmacies”, recalls Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions (USPO). It is also extremely difficult to obtain supplies from wholesalers. In the Vosges for example, on January 14, only InfluvacTetra was available “at one in three wholesalers”confides a pharmacist.
To last until the end of the campaign, which is due to end on January 31, Sanofi has already announced that it will provide additional doses of vaccines which will be gradually distributed to wholesale distributors who place orders. The laboratory has thus confirmed that it will make 250,000 doses of VaxigripTetra initially planned for the foreign market available to pharmacies. “as soon as possible”. “The only difference is at the level of packaging, for example with notices written in another language. For the rest, no change to note, with the same pharmaceutical form as usual (single-dose pre-filled syringe)”, specifies a representative of the laboratory to “Quotidien du Pharmacist”. Limit the number of doses per order or per pharmacy “is not considered at this time”.
At GSK, “our small remaining stocks have been made available”, explains the laboratory, without specifying the number of doses of FluarixTetra still available. An extension of doses of InfluvacTetra (Viatris) remains to be confirmed, according to the DGS.
Doctors, too, would like doses of vaccines in their offices. Noting that “vaccination coverage for the most vulnerable remains poor despite the increase in the number of vaccinators”, the MG France union is taking advantage of the situation to once again demand authorization for general practitioners to have anti-flu vaccines. “This simple, common sense measure does not cost the community an additional euro” would allow general practitioners to vaccinate their patients “over time, during the usual follow-up consultations”justifies the union.
