the More Who Get Flu Vaccine, the Better all are

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When It Comes to Flu, the More Who Get Vaccine, the Better

TUESDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The more people who get the flu

vaccine, the better it is for everyone, according to two new studies.

In the first study, researchers from the Institute for Clinical

Evaluative Sciences in Toronto and colleagues found that a universal

vaccination program implemented in the Ontario province in 2000 helped

lower flu-related deaths, hospitalizations, and visits to emergency

departments and doctors' offices there. Under the program, the Ontario

government offers and promotes free flu vaccinations to everyone over

the age of 6 months.

However, the study also showed that only 38 percent of all household

members still received the shots, and that the increase in

immunization rates did not reduce mortality and health-care use in

older people, particularly those over 75 years of age, as much as it

did in younger people. This suggests that higher immunization rates of

younger people might still help protect older people from the flu, the

researchers said.

The second study, done by a team at University Medical Center,

Utrecht, in the Netherlands, found that vaccinating all health-care

workers in a 30-bed nursing home department could reduce patient

infections by up to 60 percent. They also calculated that vaccinating

seven health-care workers would, on average, prevent one patient at

the home from developing the flu.

This study in " herd immunity " found that it was not possible to fully

protect all the patients; however, it concluded that increasing worker

vaccination does lead to lower risk of patients developing influenza.

Both studies were published this week in the open access journal PLoS

Medicine.

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