Vaccine shortages not unusual, experts say.

Byline: Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON _ The U.S. flu vaccine shortage _ one of seven vaccine shortages in the past two years _ is just the latest symptom of an ailing national vaccination strategy, public health experts and two federal reports say.

"Our vaccine system is broke in that we're having these shortages," Frank Sloan, a Duke University health economics professor, said Wednesday as federal officials scrounged for more flu vaccine overseas in the midst of a serious influenza outbreak.

Last year, there were shortages of shots for diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough, measles-mumps-rubella, pneumococcal disease, tetanus and chicken pox. In late 2001 and early 2002, flu vaccine also was in short supply. The seven shortages disturb Sloan, who chaired a recent vaccine-policy study by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. The U.S. General Accounting Office, Congress' watchdog arm, has identified…