Can’t get a flu shot?

If you’re a senior or have chronic health problems, medical experts recommend you consider another vaccine this year: the pneumococcal shot.

In an effort to protect at-risk groups from one of the most serious complications of the flu – pneumonia – an American manufacturer is tripling its production of the pneumococcal vaccine this year. While the vaccine does not prevent the flu, or protect against all types of pneumonia, it can thwart 23 different types of pneumococcal bacteria that are common causes of pneumonia, meningitis and some blood infections.

The vaccine “is important every year,” said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County’s public health officer.

But this year, with the nationwide shortage of the influenza vaccine, the pneumococcal immunization has taken on added importance. It may be, some health experts believe, the best means of keeping seniors who have been unable to get a flu shot out of the hospital this influenza season.

“It’s good common sense to add to whatever protection you can,” said Gerri Ginsburg, a spokeswoman for the Sutter Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice. The organization doles out flu shots and pneumococcal vaccines in 11 Northern California counties.

Merck, the New Jersey manufacturer of the vaccine, recently announced it will boost production and make between 17 million and 18 million doses this winter. Because the shot is typically needed just once in a person’s lifetime, with some people needing a booster shot years later, that supply is considered sufficient to meet an increased demand. In most years, between 6 million and 7 million Americans get the vaccine.

“We recommend that the same groups that are at risk for the flu get the pneumococcal vaccine, so it’s older individuals and people with predisposing conditions like emphysema, heart failure and diabetes,” said Dr. Thomas Dailey, chief of pulmonary medicine at Kaiser Santa Clara and a member of the board of the Santa Clara American Lung Association. “For the same reasons that they’re at risk for the flu, they’re at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 40,000 Americans are killed by the bacteria, which cause 90 percent of pneumonia cases, every year.

Finding a pneumococcal shot this winter is much easier than locating a precious flu vaccine. Most physicians offer the immunization.

It may not be as convenient, however, for some seniors to get the $35 shot as it has been in past years. The pneumococcal vaccine is usually offered at flu shot clinics at area grocery stores and pharmacies. But this year, those clinics have been canceled due to the dearth of the influenza vaccine.

Which means local residents “might not be able to get it wherever they shop. They’re going to have to go to their doctor,” said Steve Wright, national director of wellness services for Maxim Health Systems.

The vaccine is licensed for people over 2 years of age, and is recommended for seniors, people with long-term health problems such as lung disease and diabetes, and anyone with a weakened immune system. Not only are these people more likely to get pneumococcal disease, they are more likely to die from it. Yet many people are unaware of that.

The pneumococcal shot is “probably not as well recognized as the flu vaccine is,” Dailey said. “But it’s still worth coming in for.”

GETTING A PNEUMONIA SHOT

Unlike the flu shot, which is recommended annually, the pneumonia vaccine is generally needed just once, followed by a booster shot for some patients at least five years later. Who should get a pneumonia shot:

-Seniors 65 and older

-Anyone over age 2 who has a long-term health problem such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease, cirrhosis, alcoholism or leaks of cerebrospinal fluid

-Anyone over age 2 with a condition that has weakened their immune system, including Hodgkin’s disease, lymphoma, leukemia, kidney failure, HIV or AIDS, multiple myeloma, nephrotic syndrome, a damaged spleen or no spleen, or an organ transplant recipient

-Patients over age 2 on long-term steroids, some cancer drugs or radiation therapy

-Alaskan natives and certain Native American populations