Vaccinating healthcare personnel against influenza results in lower flu rates in the surrounding community, a new study shows.
In fact, for every 15 healthcare providers who get vaccinated, 1 fewer person in the community will contract an influenza-like illness.
Dr. Mary Lou Manning
"We now actually have evidence indicating that higher healthcare-worker vaccination rates in hospitals are having a community effect; they're actually resulting in lower rates of influenza in the community. That's remarkably exciting," said Mary Lou Manning, PhD, from the Thomas Jefferson University School of Nursing in Philadelphia. Dr. Manning is president-elect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), and was not involved in the study.
The study results were presented at the APIC 2014 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.
Public Health Records
James Marx, PhD, an infection preventionist at Broad Street Solutions in San Diego, analyzed data from the California Department of Public Health and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development from 2009 to 2012.
The data came from 58 California counties, 376 acute care hospitals, and more than 200 hospital service areas with hospitals in California.
When the data from the 3 influenza seasons were combined, the association between hospital healthcare-personnel influenza vaccination rates and community influenza morbidity was significant (P = .004).
On regression analysis, the rate of influenza-like illness was found to decrease 0.066% for each 1% increase in the vaccination rate.
When the vaccination rate was 0%, the predicted rate of influenza-like illness was 7.3%.
In the 2011/12 influenza season, the vaccination rate of hospital workers in California was 68%. According to Dr. Marx, if 90% of all healthcare personnel in California was vaccinated, which is the goal set by the federal government's Healthy People 2020 Initiative, there would be about 30,000 fewer cases of influenza-like illness in California.
"It is critical that healthcare providers receive the flu vaccine since they come into contact with our most vulnerable community members," he explained.
It is really great that this researcher, who did this work on his own, used existing data from California public health to determine whether increased rates of flu vaccination in healthcare personnel would have any effect in the community, said Dr. Manning.
"Mandatory healthcare-worker vaccination as a condition of employment is becoming the norm rather than the exception. The practice was a little rocky in the beginning, but now it really is taking root," she said.
"Several years of data collection have provided definite evidence that healthcare-worker influenza vaccination can potentially decrease healthcare-associated influenza infection from occurring in a hospital," she explained. "Now we have proof that it also has a community effect," Dr. Manning told Medscape Medical News.
The study may encourage everybody to get vaccinated against the flu, she added.
Dr. Marx is the founder of Broad Street Solutions. Dr. Manning has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) 2014 Annual Meeting: Abstract 426. Presented June 7, 2014.
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Cite this: Everyone Benefits When Hospital Workers Get Flu Shots - Medscape - Jun 10, 2014.
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