BETHESDA, Md., June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to persistently low influenza immunization rates among health care workers in the U.S., two advisory committees to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) joined today to approve new, stronger recommendations to vaccinate all health care workers. The new recommendations will include evidence-based guidance to improve adherence of health care workers at health care institutions throughout the U.S. to recommendations for the use of influenza vaccine.
Annual influenza immunization has long been recommended for health care workers, but vaccination rates have remained dismally low at 36 percent to 38 percent overall. The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) has spearheaded efforts to encourage health care workers to receive an annual influenza immunization and suggest that health care institutions implement policy and programs to improve vaccination rates. The new recommendations were jointly approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) at the meetings of each committee in June 2005.
“Today’s vote to strengthen national policy supporting influenza immunization among health care workers is a significant step towards improving influenza vaccination rates within the health care community; this is an important component of patient safety programs in health care facilities,” said William Schaffner, M.D., NFID board member and professor and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. “Research shows that health care workers infected with influenza can transmit the virus to seriously ill patients during the process of caring for them -- many of whom may be at high risk for complications from the viral infection -- resulting in prolonged hospitalization, admission to the intensive care unit and even death.”
The new recommendations outline strategies that hospitals, long term care facilities and other health care settings can use to increase use of influenza vaccine within their institutions. One key recommendation is the development of systems to track immunization rates within an institution and provide feedback during the influenza campaign.
Earlier this month, HICPAC voted to approve the recommendations endorsed by ACIP today. Upon approval from the Department of Health and Human Services, the committees’ joint statement will be published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“NFID sees today’s vote as a commitment to assure that health care institutions will take action on the issue and implement programs and policies that will improve both patient and health care workers’ health and safety,” said Dr. Schaffner.
Research shows several factors lead to low influenza vaccination rates among health care workers, including lack of awareness of the recommendation for annual immunization, lack of access to vaccine, vaccine cost, misperception that influenza is not a serious disease and low awareness/lack of concern about potential spread of the virus to patients. Annually in the United States, influenza causes an average of 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations.
NFID began a comprehensive effort in 2003 to address improving influenza immunization rates among health care workers. In early 2004, the organization published a “Call to Action” supported by more than 20 of the nation’s leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC, all of which agreed annual influenza vaccination among health care workers is an important goal for improved public health and patient safety.
Also in 2004, NFID published a comprehensive report, Improving Influenza Vaccination Rates in Health Care Workers: Strategies to Increase Protection for Workers and Patients, which outlined the serious implication low influenza immunization rates have on patient safety, and provided strategies to address the issue. Both publications are available on NFID’s Web site, http://www.nfid.org.
Founded in 1973, NFID is a non-profit organization dedicated to public and professional educational programs about infectious diseases.
Contact: Jennifer Corrigan
732-382-8898
National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
CONTACT: Jennifer Corrigan of National Foundation for Infectious Diseases,+1-732-382-8898
Web site: http://www.nfid.org/
