Where did all the swine flu vaccine go?

HOUSTON -- There is some H1N1 vaccine in the Houston area, but it's in short supply.

For now,?only healthy children between the ages of 2 and 4 are being given it -- and only if they are already patients of the clinics that have the vaccine.

"We've received a really scanty proportion of what we've ordered. It's really been awful," said Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Immunization Director Dr. Melanie Mouzoon.

The total is less than 10 percent of what the clinic ordered and the only vaccine received so far by Kelsey Seybold is the live virus nasal mist.

The problem with the mist is it can't be used on the most vulnerable people, pregnant women and children with health conditions.

The Texas State Department of Health Services administers the vaccine program in Houston.

"It's just not in Houston. It is just not in Texas. It is throughout the country. The vaccine is just not available in the quantities that had been anticipated," Doug McBride, press officer for the department said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the vaccine was to be distributed based on population. Because Texas is third in population, you would think it would be third on the list. However, Texas is 14th.

In fact, North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Arizona all have received more vaccine than Texas.

Then there is California, which received more than four times as much as Texas as of last Wednesday.

"If Texas has fewer doses than California, it certainly seems inappropriate. Somebody dropped the ball somewhere, and I think our patients are suffering," said Mouzoon.

The CDC says any discrepancy in the number of shipped doses and the population of a state is a result of the way the state ordered its vaccine and how it negotiated with the vaccine's distributor.

Doug McBride says the state is doing the best it can.

"The picture has changed significantly since that time. Even though I don't have exact numbers, we know that a lot more doses have been shipped to Texas," said McBride.

But there is a problem with that argument. The CDC numbers are from October 14. In that posting, Texas had been shipped 178,300 doses of H1N1 vaccine. By the week of October 9, the state's own website says it had been allocated more than a half million doses.

No one could answer why those doses did not get shipped.

"There are certainly a lot of vulnerable people getting exposed on a daily basis. The more that we can get immunized, the more hospitalizations we'll prevent. And the more deaths we'll prevent," said Mouzoon.

There were 11 more pediatric deaths from H1N1 nationwide just last week.