Routine Vaccination Should Be Standard Care In Nursing Homes.(Brief Article)

2001 JUN 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Elderly, institutionalized patients have nothing to lose and everything to gain from routine vaccination against influenza, and clinicians caring for them should not fail to ensure their protection, say researchers working in Japan.

Y. Deguchi and associates described morbidity and mortality in elderly nursing home residents during an influenza A H3N2 outbreak in Japan during 1998-1999.

Among the 22,462 nursing home residents in Japan's Osaka Prefecture who were older than 65, 10,739 had been vaccinated and 11,723 had not.

The vaccinated subjects had statistically significantly fewer cases of influenza and fewer hospital admissions and deaths that could be attributed to influenza (256 cases, 32 hospital admissions, and one death) compared with unvaccinated controls (694 cases, 150 hospital admissions, and five deaths).

No adverse reactions were recorded among vaccine recipients, and those receiving either one or two vaccines were equally well-protected, noted Deguchi and colleagues ("Efficacy of influenza vaccine in elderly persons in welfare nursing homes: Reduction in risks of mortality and morbidity during an influenza A (H3N2) epidemic," Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, June 2001;56(6):M391-4).

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