FDA commissioner thanks nation’s doctors for work in fighting influenza A (H1N1)

Margaret Hamburg, MD, commissioner of the FDA, sent a letter today to doctors throughout the United States thanking them for their efforts during this year’s influenza A (H1N1) outbreak. Hamburg also provided additional information to doctors about the supply and safety of the influenza A (H1N1) vaccines.

Hamburg said health care providers in the United States have made “extraordinary efforts” in responding to the outbreak and said she was grateful for their efforts.

“As this new infectious disease sweeps through communities across the country, you must juggle your usual patient care responsibilities with a special role in influenza response,” Hamburg wrote. “Delays in vaccine delivery and the persistence of myths about vaccination have not made your job any easier. Thank you for rising to this public health challenge.”

Hamburg went on to address concerns about the supply of influenza A (H1N1) vaccines. “The Department of Health and Human Services is working with influenza vaccine manufacturers and state and local public health officials to make these vaccines widely available,” she wrote. “So far, more than 41 million doses of the 2009 H1N1 vaccine have been allocated to the states for distribution across the country and more is becoming available every day.”

Hamburg also said doctors should talk to their patients to alleviate any concerns they may have about the safety of the influenza A (H1N1) vaccines. She stressed that the influenza A (H1N1) vaccines were subject to the same safety monitoring as seasonal influenza vaccine.

“Every year, FDA and vaccine manufacturers follow a series of steps to make a new influenza vaccine targeted to the three main circulating strains of influenza,” Hamburg wrote. “These steps have produced effective and very safe vaccines time and again, adding up to hundreds of millions of doses administered in the United States alone. We followed this same path for the 2009 H1N1 vaccines.”