Recently, Tripler partnered with Hawaiian Airlines and Continental Micronesia Airlines to fly the surplus vaccine to American Samoa, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands.
“The countries receiving them are more than happy to get the vaccine, free of charge,” Capt. Daniel O’Neil, Tripler logistics medical officer, said. “The program fosters good relations with these countries and gives us an outlet to use these vaccines instead of just discarding them. It benefits not only us but the countries receiving them.”
While the flu season is over in the United States, influenza is a year-round contagious disease in the tropics.
The Pacific Island Health Officers Association, comprised of the chief health officers of the various islands, determined how the vaccines would be distributed in their respective islands.
The U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency and the Military Vaccine Agency helped coordinate and ship the surplus vaccines from military treatment facilities nationwide to Tripler, where the project was managed by Tripler’s logistics division and preventive medicine department.
Unlike the past two years, all the vaccine donated this year, is injectable, with about 40 percent in dosages for pediatric patients.
According to Col. Mike Sigmon, Tripler’s preventive medicine chief, seasonal influenza kills an average of 36,000 Americans annually.
Receiving the flu shot protects not only recipients but those who work or live closely with them, especially the very young and very old.
The program began in 2007, when Joint Task Force-Homeland Defense at Fort Shafter recognized the need in these islands for influenza vaccine and the availability of the Department of Defense’s excess influenza vaccine.
In a trial run, 7,800 doses of DoD excess influenza vaccine on Oahu were collected and shipped to the Northern Marianas.
Last year, the program expanded, and 26,500 doses were distributed to the health departments of Guam and American Samoa and former Trust Territories in the Pacific basin.
