Thailand is to overhaul the management of its flu vaccine stock to cope with a shortage which is likely to become serious as the global spread of the virus set to push vaccine demand higher, according to local news media report on Sunday.
Supamit Chunsuttiwat, a senior medical officer who takes care of the bird flu preparedness plan, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying that demand for the influenza vaccine is higher in cold weather countries such as the United States, Japan and South Korea than in tropical countries like Thailand, which uses less. But the current bird flu situation will lead to higher demand for the flu vaccine in many countries.
Thailand plans to stockpile more than 300,000 doses to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic. The stockpile, which would be enough for 300,000 people, is comparatively small compared to the population of 68 million.
Prasert Thongcharoen, president of the Influenza Foundation of Thailand, said the vaccine shortage made it necessary to make more economical use of the vaccine.
"We plan to change the method of vaccination from an intramuscularly form to an intradermally form, or from injecting into muscle to injecting into skin, which requires less of the vaccine per dose," he said.
Prasert said this new practice could make the vaccine available for 1.2 million people, from the original 300,000.
Muscle injection requires 0.5cc per shot, while a skin shot uses only 0.1cc, he said, adding the new method was necessary as it was quite hard to place an order for the vaccine due to higher global demand.
However, more study was needed to determine the effectiveness of the under-the-skin injection, he said, adding that the result of a study conducted by Siriraj Hospital will come out in three months.