Healthcare worker flu shots help patients

UTRECHT, Netherlands, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Dutch researchers suggest there are fewer seasonal influenza outbreaks in at-risk populations if healthcare workers are vaccinated.

Carline van den Dool and colleagues at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, Netherlands, say that increasing the number of healthcare staff who are vaccinated can protect patients from influenza.

The researchers calculated that increasing the proportion of vaccinated healthcare workers from 0 to 100 percent in a 30-bed nursing home would reduce patient infections by about 60 percent, and that vaccinating seven healthcare workers would, on average, prevent one patient from getting influenza.

The study, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, also finds that no level of healthcare worker vaccination guarantees complete immunity, suggesting even at high levels of immunization, increasing the number of nursing home staff who are vaccinated against flu each year will further reduce risk to patients.