INFLUENZA A vaccines sold online should not to be used despite the shortage at private hospitals, said Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye.

He warned the public against buying vaccines online as they may be counterfeits or expired products.

Vaccines are manufactured overseas according to the strand of virus at the time and may be ineffective a year later due to potential mutations.

“The Ministry of Health has never approved the sale of vaccines online,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

To import vaccines, a hospital has to apply for an import permit from the ministry.

Lee was responding to cases of parents buying vaccines online and bringing them to clinics for doctors to inject their children.

This came to light in a Facebook post by a 24-hour clinic in Bangi, Selangor, which revealed that people were bringing packages containing the vaccine to their doctors.

The clinic was flooded with calls from people requesting the same service. It, however, clarified that it will not inject the vaccine of unknown origin to patients.

Lee said vaccines bought online are risky, as the stock may be ineffective because they are manufactured based on the current strain of influenza at the time they are developed.

“In other words, the vaccine you gave last year or the previous year is different from this year, hence it doesn’t rule out the possibility that those sold online could have expired.”

Second, sending a vaccine through the post is risky as vaccines require specific handling.

“There are standard operating procedures for storing vaccines, which have to be kept under low temperature. If the temperature is not controlled, the vaccine will not be effective. Therefore, buying vaccines online is really not encouraged,” he said.

Malaysia has seen a surge in influenza cases since the end of last year, a pattern which director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has said is not too far out of normal range.

The Malaysian Insight reported on Sunday that private hospitals have been struggling to meet the demand for the influenza A vaccine as more people seek immunisation amid the current flu outbreak, medical practitioners said.

The shortage is partly driven by the fact that government healthcare facilities do not vaccinate everyone who requests it but only those categorised as high risk.

This includes frontline healthcare workers and those with chronic diseases.

“A lot of people are confused but only high-risk groups need to be vaccinated. These include children under five years old, elderly people over 65 years old, obese and diabetic patients, pregnant women and patients with severe disabilities.

“Conversely, other people will recover automatically even if they catch the flu, and only a few will have complications.”

Emphasising prevention, he said the Health Ministry is in talks with the Education Ministry to improve supervision of pupils’ health.

Schools must immediately notify parents to take their children home as soon as they notice flu symptoms, he added.

“Then parents must take their child to the doctor to make sure that they are not infected with the flu and there are no complications.

“Those infected should take a good rest at home instead of going out to public places to avoid the flu. If you really want to go out, wear a mask.”

So far, only two schools have closed due to the Influenza A outbreak. They are SM Sains Teluk Intan in Perak (from January 11 to 19) and SK Stella Maris in Tg Ara, Sabah (from January 22 to 28).

More than 180,000 doses of the influenza A vaccine will be in the country by the end of this month. – January 23, 2020.