Importance of Influenza Vaccination for Health Care Personnel

As the flu season approaches, FDA is urging healthcare facilities to ensure that influenza vaccination programs are available for their personnel. Vaccinating healthcare workers will decrease the likelihood that they will contract influenza, and also decrease the chance that they will infect others. This is especially important because these personnel often provide care to patients at high risk of serious and even fatal complications if they contract influenza. Of course another benefit of vaccinating staff is that it also protects their families from getting the disease.

Persons who should be immunized include physicians, nursing staff, pharmacists, technicians, emergency personnel, dental personnel, and students. The list also includes those who are not directly involved in patient care, such as clerical, dietary, housekeeping, and security staff.

CDC estimates that only 40% of health care workers get the flu vaccine each year. Yet studies have shown that low vaccination rates among health care personnel contribute to influenza outbreaks in healthcare facilities, and this needlessly puts patients at risk. It has also been shown that there is a lower incidence of nosocomial influenza cases in those facilities where staff vaccination rates are higher.

For example, in one study, influenza cases and immunization records at a single hospital were followed for 12 years. Over that time, staff vaccination coverage increased from 4 percent to 67 percent, while influenza cases among the staff decreased from 42 percent to 9 percent. At the same time, nosocomial influenza cases among hospitalized patients decreased from 32 percent to zero.

So educate staff about the importance of getting a flu shot, and try to ensure that vaccination programs are available for them. Fall is the best time to be immunized, but getting the vaccine in the winter months is also recommended.

Additional Information:

CDC. Health Care Personnel Initiative to Improve Influenza Vaccination Toolkit. September 2008.
http://www.hhs.gov/ophs/programs/initiatives/vacctoolkit/index.html

FDA/CBER Influenza Virus Vaccine 2008-2009. October 29, 2008.
http://www.fda.gov/cber/flu/flu2008.htm