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- CDC Says More Pregnant Women, Health-Care Workers Need Flu Shot
More flu shots than ever will be produced for the upcoming influenza season, as public-health officials keep trying to spur more Americans — particularly health-care workers and pregnant women – to get vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on a media teleconference today that it expects about 166 million flu shots to be produced this year, an increase from last season’s 157 million. Nearly half of children, 6 months to 17 years old, got flu shots last season, compared to 41% of all adults, the CDC estimated.
The FDA said last month that it approved the formulation for the 2011-12 vaccine. It’ll protect against the same strains as last year, but even people who were vaccinated then still need this year’s iteration, because the immunity the shot confers isn’t that long-lived.
The CDC today highlighted new research showing that 63.5% of health-care personnel were vaccinated in the 2010-11 flu season, up slightly from 62% the year earlier.
That’s well short of the government’s goal of reaching 90% coverage among health-care workers by 2020. The CDC says it’s key for health-care workers to get vaccinated to avoid absenteeism during peak flu season and to avoid passing on the virus to patients.
Vaccination rates for workers were higher when getting a flu shot was a workplace requirement, was offered on-site more than a singular day and was provided for free, the CDC said.
The percentage of pregnant women getting flu shots was unchanged during the last flu season at 49%, other CDC stats showed. Pregnant women are at particular risk of flu complications, the agency said. Simply being offered the shot by a medical provider boosted the likelihood that a pregnant woman would get vaccinated to 71%, compared to 14% for those who weren’t offered the vaccine.
The flu season normally runs from late fall to early spring.
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