A shot in the arm urged for flu vaccine programs

Investing in pandemic flu vaccine development and distribution could produce needed help for seasonal flu vaccine, an infectious diseases group says.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Feb. 19, 2007.

Washington -- The Infectious Diseases Society of America is recommending a range of actions to bolster the nation's efforts to prepare for a pandemic flu outbreak while simultaneously easing what IDSA terms a seasonal flu vaccine situation that suffers from an outdated manufacturing process and a flawed distribution system as well as vast numbers of unvaccinated physicians and other health care professionals.

The group urged that the strong messages regularly meted out to get a yearly shot be upgraded to a requirement for physicians and others in health care, albeit one that allows for written opt-outs on religious, philosophical or medical grounds.

"There is no better example of what we should do to prepare for a pandemic than to become extremely good at vaccinating health care workers and protecting patients when they come into health care facilities," said Andrew T. Pavia, MD, chair of IDSA's National and Global Public Health Committee, in announcing the group's recommendations Jan. 25.

Fewer than two in five physicians and other health care workers receive an annual shot, yet they provide care for the thousands of patients hospitalized each year with the flu. They well could spread the disease to family members and others in the community, IDSA said.

Such a vaccine mandate isn't new, Dr. Pavia noted. Physicians and others already are required to get hepatitis B vaccines, and those who work in children's hospitals are often required to be vaccinated against measles and varicella or they can't come to work.