A sixth of Australia’s vaccine supply at risk due to syringe shortage

Low dead space syringes are designed to waste less fluid by ensuring the shape of the plunger beneath the metal needle fits into the neck of the syringe, leaving less fluid behind when the vaccine is administered.

On Wednesday, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said her state was basing rollout estimates on extracting five doses from each vial of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, not the labelled six, because standard syringes were being used.

The estimate means NSW is prepared to waste 7000 doses to achieve the 35,000 it plans to administer over the next three weeks.

“While there is a possibility to get six doses out of each vial, that’s really contingent on us getting access to low dead space volume needles,” Dr Chant said.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said NSW was being “cautious and conservative as they should be”.

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“When we ordered, we based it on the foundation of five, and more than that is a bonus: it’s not the other way round,” he added.

There are major shortages of the low dead space syringes being reported overseas, including in Japan and the US, as countries race to vaccinate their populations against coronavirus.

Infectious diseases physician and associate professor at the University of Queensland Paul Griffin said low dead space syringes were usually only used in “unique” situations.

“For example, IVF transfers where we can’t afford to have anything left behind.”

However, they have become important for coronavirus vaccines packaged in multi-use vials. Most vaccines Australians receive are packaged in single-use vials, where the dose provided is exact for one patient.

“It only happens when we have no other choice,” Dr Griffin said of the multi-use vials, adding that he believed the current approach of proceeding with standard syringes was “justified”.

“It is ideal to get that low dead space syringe, but in circumstances like this it is just a time thing.”