CME program focuses on influenza vaccine uptake in older adults

According to the CDC, vaccination coverage among some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations was down during the last influenza season. This included a 3.3 percentage point dip in patients aged 65 years and older — a group at higher risk of influenza-related hospitalization.

To address this issue, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) and International Centre for Infectious Diseases have developed a free online CME program called “Influenza Knowledge Transfer Series.”

William Schaffner

To get a better idea of what the program offers and why it could be beneficial to physicians, we spoke with William Schaffner, MD, Infectious Disease News Editorial Board member, NFID medical director and professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Why is it important to improve influenza vaccine coverage among adults aged 65 years and older?

Influenza comes to us in an annual epidemic, some years more severe than others, but annually the population aged 65 years and older is where most of the serious complications are, and these are the complications of pneumonia, hospitalization and the risk for dying. Getting that population well vaccinated is terribly important. The data clearly indicate now that although influenza vaccines are not perfect, they do provide a substantial measure of protection against influenza and its complications in people aged 65 and older. The more we can protect that population, the less ominous impact the annual influenza epidemic will have on our population, on our patients.

What are some of the challenges involved in vaccinating this population?

The first is to get them in to be vaccinated. Here in the United States, we do an enormously large job here in vaccinating two-thirds of the population aged 65 and older, but we’ve been stuck at that level for about 5, 6, 8 years now. Challenge No. 1 is to get an even larger proportion of the population in to be vaccinated. The second challenge is that, as we get older, our immune systems become less robust, and our immune systems respond less well to vaccination. The response to that has been we now have two manufacturers that have provided influenza vaccines designed specifically for people aged 65 and older. They provide an enhanced immune response; one is the high-dose vaccine, another is an adjuvanted vaccine. Both provide an enhanced immune response and there are data on behalf of both vaccines showing that they provide enhanced protection against influenza. So, if we can get the people in to be vaccinated, we now can offer them superior protection using these two vaccines that are designed specifically for people aged 65 and older.

How does the CME program address these challenges?

It provides a lot of information about influenza; it addresses frequently asked questions about influenza and influenza vaccination; and it offers guidelines for how to immunize these folks using both vaccines as well as regular, conventional influenza vaccines.

What are some of the other advantages of the program?

You can go into it and segment and use as much of it as you like. As I said, there’s an awful lot of background material, there’s scholarly references associated with it if you decide to dig more deeply into it and it’s a very comprehensive program and there are, obviously, CME credits.

Who should take this free online CME course?

I would like to see every provider who has an interest in protecting their patients against influenza take the course. It is free! – by Gerard Gallagher

For more information:

NFID, ICID. Influenza knowledge transfer series. 2016. http://resources.us.mdpassport.com/en/kts-flu/. Accessed Nov. 17, 2016.

Disclosures: Schaffner reports being a member of the data safety monitoring boards for Merck and Pfizer, a consultant for Dynavax, Novavax, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, and a lecturer for Genentech.