Yellow Fever Vaccine Shortage
This article is current as of March 6, 2018. For the most up-to-date information regarding international travel, please consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website at www.cdc.gov/travel. Click here for the official announcement regarding Yellow Fever Vaccine from the CDC.
Service to our Traveling Customers
At Community Farmacy, we have been helping travelers from the Delmarva Peninsula protect themselves against diseases related to international travel since 2015. Our patients have traveled for pleasure, for business, and for medical or Christian mission trips. It has been our pleasure to help ensure that our patients return healthy from their trips abroad.
Yellow Fever Vaccine Shortage
Recently, Sanofi-Pasteur, the manufacturer of yellow fever vaccine YF-Vax, has announced total depletion of the supply of yellow fever vaccine until the end of 2018. Some clinics may still have YF-Vax doses available, but once those doses are administered, there is no additional supply. Here at Community Farmacy, we have exhausted our supply and are unable to order additional doses. We don’t expect to have additional doses in stock until they become available again at the end of 2018.
What Does This Mean for Travelers?
Travelers are encouraged to postpone travel if possible. We encourage church mission groups to prayerfully consider postponing their mission work until the yellow fever vaccine becomes available. The current estimate for availability is the end of 2018.
If travel is unavoidable, or has already been booked, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an alternate yellow fever vaccine called Stamaril under an Investigational New Drug (IND) application. Stamaril is manufactured by the same company (Sanofi Pasteur), and is available in over 70 countries worldwide. Stamaril is not investigational or experimental; it has been available for decades in numerous countries around the world. Stamaril has never been approved or licensed in the United States, but is comparable in bothsafety and efficacy to YF-Vax. To meet the requirements of the IND application, Stamaril is only available at select clinics in the United States. The CDC has a vaccine finder to help you locate clinics that are offering Stamaril. Currently, Community Farmacy is not an authorized clinic. As of this writing, the closest locations to Community Farmacy are those located in the Baltimore/DC Metro area or Wilmington, Delaware. You may search for a clinic near you on the CDC’s website.
As always, please call the pharmacy at (410) 749-1899 well in advance of your trip so we can help you plan for any medications or vaccines that are recommended or required. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about travel health!