Thousands Asked to Come in For Re-Vaccinations

Thousands of Sutter patients in San Francisco and the North Bay need to be vaccinated again because their shots may not be effective.

Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation says some of its vaccines may not have been stored at the proper temperature. If they aren't refrigerated correctly, vaccines can lose their effectiveness. Spokesman Sam Singer says Sutter has asked 3,100 people who received shots between January and June to go back and get re-vaccinated.

"In certain circumstances the refrigerator may be the wrong temperature, in other instances people didn't log in the proper temperature, so we determined we're better safe than sorry," said Singer.

The problem affects nearly 20 vaccines, including polio, hepatitis, whooping cough, and H1N1, and 14 care centers are affected. Three are in San Francisco, one in Marin, and 10are in Lake and Sonoma counties.

Sutter says there will be no harmful effects, either from the initial vaccine, or from the re-vaccination, and, there's no charge for the "do-over."

Sutter says, it has a new protocol in place to make sure this doesn't happen again.