H1N1 Vaccine's short shelf life leads to doses going into trash

The H1N1 vaccine is time sensitive. So much so that some provinces in Canada have had to trash the supply that they have on hand when miscalculations have been made.

With lines swelling at health clinics for the vaccine, news that Health Canada has had to toss out vaccine may seem like a slap in the face. Some health clinics in Toronto and Halifax have had to toss out about one percent of their supply due to the short shelf life. For Toronto that means nearly 500 doses for adjuvanted vaccine have been discarded reports CP24. Once the vaccine process has begun on site, with the vaccine being reconstituted with the adjuvant the clock begins to tick. Any vaccine that has not been used within 24 hours is no longer viable. In Toronto a ticket system has been used to give the nurses an idea of how much vaccine to prepare. Still numbers can be off.