Unvaccinated HCWs jeopardize patients’ lives
One-quarter of all health care workers get influenza each year, jeopardizing the lives of hospitalized elderly and immune-compromised patients, experts say.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, influenza and pneumonia are the leading cause of infectious disease in the United States and the sixth biggest cause of death. Both are preventable diseases that are not being prevented because people, including HCWs, are not bothering to get vaccinated.
Many people are not aware of the risks of infection and of the vaccines’ effectiveness, says Jay Butler, MD, acting chief of the epidemiology section in the CDC’s respiratory diseases branch.
"As many as 22 million elderly have never been immunized against pneumococcal disease," Butler notes. In addition, as many as 20% of the pneumococcal infections in elderly patients do not respond at all to penicillin, and another 10% do not respond well to it. Also, another 10% do not respond to third-generation cephalosporins, the next line of drugs.
More than 40,000 Americans die every year from pneumococcal diseases, including pneumonia. Influenza kills about 20,000 Americans annually. The elderly and immune-compromised should be vaccinated against both influenza and pneumococcal infections, says Gregory Poland, MD, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
Poland says HCWs are transmitting flu infections to the weak and elderly, who can die from influenza complications, and he recommends that all HCWs be vaccinated.
"If they do not get immunized, the very people who are charged with protecting the elderly from the flu may bring the virus into hospitals and nursing homes," he says.
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