24 organizations: Coalition pushes initiative to increase influenza immunization of health workers beyond 'dismal' 36% rate.(News)

ATLANTA -- A new initiative aimed at improving the "dismal" 36% rate of influenza vaccination among health care workers is being led by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Kristin Nichol announced at a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The initiative, which will urge health care organizations to develop policies and programs to increase influenza immunizations among health care personnel, was developed at a roundtable held last fall. It is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, and the American Medical Association, along with at least 20 other medical, labor, and governmental groups. Its funding is from an unrestricted educational grant from Aventis Pasteur.

"Health care workers have been implicated as sources and vectors of influenza in the health care setting. This has a serious impact on the health of patients," commented Dr. Nichol, who is professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, and chair of the foundation's National Coalition for Adult Immunization Advisory Committee.

The 36% came from health care worker participants in the 2001 National Health Interview Survey, a proportion little improved from the 34% in the 1997 NHIS.

Many examples of the consequences of such underimmunization have been published. In one instance, four cases of influenza A virus infection that occurred during a 4-day outbreak in an organ transplant unit in France were linked to three nurses who presented with clinical influenza symptoms during the same time period (Transplantation 72[3]:535-37, 2001).

In another situation, 19 infants in a neonatal intensive care unit in Canada were infected with influenza A, of whom 6 were symptomatic and 1 died. Only 15% of the NICU staff reported having been vaccinated (Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 21[7]:449-54, 2000).

And during the 1991-1992 influenza season, 65 long-term care facility residents in New York state developed influenza A.