tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Higher flu vaccination rates for healthcare personnel can dramatically reduce the threat of flu outbreak among nursing home residents.
This was the finding from a study to be published in the October issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
The study, which focused on nursing homes in New Mexico, found that when a facility had between 51 and 75 per cent of its health care personnel with direct patient care vaccinated, the chances of a flu outbreak in that facility went down by 87 per cent.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long recommended that healthcare personnel in nursing homes get vaccinated against the flu, but we didn't know just how much help these recommendations might be in reducing flu outbreaks among residents," said Aaron Wendelboe of the University of Oklahoma, the lead author of the study.
"We found strong evidence to support the CDC's recommendation that to protect residents of nursing homes, health care personnel should be vaccinated annually."
In association with the New Mexico Department of Health, Wendelboe and his team surveyed influenza rates at the state's 75 long-term care facilities during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 flu seasons. They then looked for correlations between vaccination rates at each facility and whether there was an influenza outbreak.
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http://www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=8f6874fc-4364-49eb-922f-8b7f21186d10
This was the finding from a study to be published in the October issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
The study, which focused on nursing homes in New Mexico, found that when a facility had between 51 and 75 per cent of its health care personnel with direct patient care vaccinated, the chances of a flu outbreak in that facility went down by 87 per cent.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long recommended that healthcare personnel in nursing homes get vaccinated against the flu, but we didn't know just how much help these recommendations might be in reducing flu outbreaks among residents," said Aaron Wendelboe of the University of Oklahoma, the lead author of the study.
"We found strong evidence to support the CDC's recommendation that to protect residents of nursing homes, health care personnel should be vaccinated annually."
In association with the New Mexico Department of Health, Wendelboe and his team surveyed influenza rates at the state's 75 long-term care facilities during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 flu seasons. They then looked for correlations between vaccination rates at each facility and whether there was an influenza outbreak.
...
http://www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=8f6874fc-4364-49eb-922f-8b7f21186d10