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Nearly 500 Patients Receive Wrong Dose of Flu Vaccine


Posted on Dec 26, 2011

Patients in Ireland may have to be re-vaccinated after 489 adults received the wrong dose of flu vaccine.
The error occurred as a result of a training mistake administered by Hibernian Healthcare, the company responsible for training pharmacists to deliver the vaccination.  An incorrect dosage was given to pharmacists who attended the training program, stating that adults should be vaccinated with a dose of 0.25ml.
In actuality, 0.25ml is a pediatric dose of the flu vaccine, and adults should receive 0.5ml.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland published an interim report after the error stating that the pharmacists not only made a dosage error, they also used the incorrect injection technique. The society believes that in many of the cases, the pediatric dosing line on the vaccine barrel was accidentally interpreted as an adult dose.
Hibernian Healthcare discovered the mistake and contacted over 800 pharmacies individually to advise them on redosing the affected patients.

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