CDC Advisory Committee: health care workers nudged to get influenza vaccine.(Clinical Rounds)

ATLANTA -- In an effort to put teeth behind its current recommendations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices drafted a separate statement calling on health care workers and their employers to vaccinate themselves against influenza.

The new effort targeting health care personnel stops short of punitive measures, but does include a provision that should a health care worker refuse to be vaccinated, the worker should sign a statement of declination to give to their employer.

"The issue here is do you realize you are putting yourself and your patients at risk?" said ACIP member Jon Abramson, who is professor and chair of pediatrics at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C. "That's the issue behind any refused consent."

Health care personnel are included in ACIP's general influenza recommendations.

However, the new statement also adds that health care workers should be vaccinated against influenza annually to protect patients, themselves, and their communities, and to avoid absenteeism.

Additionally, the statement notes health care facilities should educate health care personnel regarding the benefits of vaccination and consequences of the illness, and that education should include epidemiology, modes of transmission, and diagnosis.

"When we look at why health care workers have not been immunized, many studies consistently demonstrate that health care workers are clueless as to the rationale--not clueless, but pretty close." said Dr. Kristin Nichol, who is professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.