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 “It’s a straightforward phenomenon: it takes three weeks for
antibodies to develop, thus the earlier you get vaccinated the
better,” said senior study author Dr. Adrian Camacho-Ortiz, of the
University Hospital Dr. Jose Eleuterio Gonzalez in Mexico.
“The most important finding of our study is that we provide proof of
this phenomenon, which is scarce, moreover in health care
providers,” Camacho-Ortiz added by email. “We found that health care
workers vaccinated earlier in the season had less influenza-like
syndrome and were less likely to lose working days.”
Camacho-Ortiz and colleagues analyzed data on nearly 6,200 health
care workers over two flu seasons at one teaching hospital in
Mexico.
During the first season, from September 2013 to April 2014, vaccines
were given later than during the subsequent season, spanning 2014 to
2015.
Roughly 59 percent of the health care workers studied got vaccinated
in each of the two flu seasons, the research team reported in the
American Journal of Infection Control.
But during the first year of the study, only 23 percent of
vaccinated workers were inoculated by the beginning of November, two
months into the flu season. In the second year, 56 percent of the
vaccinated workers were inoculated by November.
The difference may be due at least in part to earlier efforts to
promote vaccination during the second season, the researchers note.
Fewer workers vaccinated early during the first year translated into
more leaves of absence among the study participants – 52 the first
year, compared with just 15 the following year – and more total days
of lost work – 218 versus 68.
In the first year, 49 vaccinated workers experienced flu like
symptoms, compared with just 24 the following year. There wasn’t a
difference, however, in the proportion of vaccinated workers who had
confirmed cases of influenza.
One limitation of the study is that the vaccine was known to be less
effective during the second season. Contrary to the study results,
the authors speculate that this should have increased the number of
people with flu like symptoms and confirmed influenza cases during
the second season.
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Common misperceptions about vaccination, such as an incorrect belief
that people can get influenza from the flu shot, may still lead some
health care workers not to get inoculated, noted Sherri LaVela, a
researcher at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Feinberg
School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.
“Many organizations that have instituted mandatory vaccination
initiatives have seen large improvements in vaccination rates among
health care workers,” LaVela, who wasn’t involved in the study, said
by email.
Beyond the lost work from delayed or skipped vaccinations, health
care workers who aren’t protected against influenza can infect
patients, noted Mary Lou Manning, president of the Association for
Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and a researcher
at Thomas Jefferson University College of Nursing in Philadelphia.
“The scientific evidence is clear that the routine annual influenza
vaccination of health care providers can reduce influenza-related
illness and its potentially serious consequences among the providers
and their patients,” Manning, who wasn’t involved in the study, said
by email. “There is also evidence to suggest that when hospital
workers get vaccinated, community flu rates decline.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Revajq American Journal of Infection Control,
online November 13, 2015.
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