Flu Battle Plan

For 130 state and territorial health officials assembled in Washington last week to map strategy in advance of this winter's expected Asian flu epidemic, Surgeon General LeRoy E. Burney had reassuring news on all fronts:

P:Vaccine production is ahead of schedule, with an estimated 8,000,000 doses to be available by mid-September, v. previous estimates of 6,000,000. By Jan. 1 there should be 85 million doses, enough to inoculate half the U.S. population, v. earlier hopes for only 60 million by February. Half of the vaccine available by September is now earmarked for the military both home and abroad.

P:Preliminary tests on 55 volunteers at the state correction institution at Patuxent. Md. show the vaccine gives "definite"* protection against Asian flu. Those who came down with flu despite taking shots had no complications. A combination of shots and isolation kept the disease from spreading to other patients.

P:The vaccine, in reduced dosages, is now considered safe for children, even though youngsters are more susceptible than adults to fever reactions from the shots. Recommended dosages: two shots of 0.1 cc. each, one to two weeks apart for children under five, two shots of 0.5 cc. each for children five to twelve (v. single adult dose of 1 cc.).

P:Though 26 million people in the U.S. may come down with Asian flu, and the disease can sweep coast to coast in a month's time, those who get it without immunization shots, Dr. Burney reemphasized, will have "a relatively mild illness with symptoms which are commonplace accompaniments of many everyday illnesses in our society." In short, Asian flu, though it beds most patients for four days, is not a deadly disease.

In developing an overall battle plan to combat Asian flu, members of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers of the U.S. heard reports advising 1) weekly flu-situation bulletins, to be submitted" by the states to the Public Health Service, 2) integration of disaster and welfare agencies into a master plan, 3 ) establishment of a National Commission on Influenza to deal with future flu epidemics.

With 1,149.610 doses of vaccine already released, the rush for protection has begun. An estimated 30.000 cases of Asian flu have already been reported in the U.S., and demand for shots is heavy. Among groups who have received shots so far: transport workers in Seattle, policemen in Kansas City, medical personnel in most areas.

*As "definite" as any flu vaccine can be expected to be. The Asian flu vaccine's rate of effectiveness (70%) compares with those for smallpox (nearly 100%) and polio (85-90%).

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