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Employee flu vaccines reduced outbreaks in long-term care facilities
Wendelboe AM. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2011;doi:10.1086/661916.
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Increased vaccination coverage among direct-care employees in long-term care facilities led to fewer reported influenza outbreaks, according to new findings published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
“The CDC has long recommended for health care personnel in nursing homes to get vaccinated against the flu, but we didn’t know just how much help these recommendations might be in reducing flu outbreaks among residents,” Aaron M. Wendelboe, PhD, of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, said in a press release. “We found strong evidence to support the CDC’s recommendation that to protect residents of nursing homes, health care personnel should be vaccinated annually.”
During the 2006 to 2008 influenza seasons, Wendelboe and colleagues analyzed the association between direct-care employee vaccination levels and outbreaks of influenza detected and reported across 75 long-term care facilities affiliated with the New Mexico Department of Health.
The researchers pooled monthly influenza case information, including the proportion of residents and direct-care employees vaccinated in each facility. Long-term care facilities reporting at least one case of influenza were compared with long-term care facilities reporting no cases of influenza.
Seventeen influenza outbreaks were reported among residents during the 2-year surveillance period. Eleven were laboratory confirmed and six were defined by influenza-like illness.
Compared with a 51% influenza vaccination coverage among direct-care employees across facilities reporting outbreaks, influenza vaccination coverage was 60% across facilities with no reported outbreaks (P=.12).
Overall, increased vaccination coverage among direct-care employees led to fewer reported outbreaks of laboratory-confirmed influenza (adjusted OR=0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.99) and influenza-like illness (adjusted OR=0.98; 95% CI, 0.96-1.00), according to the study.
Conversely, increased vaccination coverage among residents was associated with increased odds of reporting an influenza outbreak in long-term care facilities. “These findings underscore the need for administrators of [long-term care facilities] to be aware that high vaccination coverage among residents is not sufficient to prevent outbreaks of influenza,” the researchers wrote.
“To protect residents of [long-term care facilities] against influenza, improvements should be made to increase the vaccination coverage among direct-care employees,” they wrote. “As a direct result of this active surveillance, we were able to identify [long-term care facilities] with low vaccination coverage among direct-care employees and respond to their concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of the influenza vaccine.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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