If care home staff have flu jabs, it reduces illness and death among residents, according to a new study.

Health care workers are usually top priority for having flu jabs in hospitals, but it's often not the practice in care homes. But residents of care homes often have weakened immunity and are vulnerable to flu and its complications even if they have had a flu jab themselves. Researchers have carried out a study in 44 UK care homes to see what impact promoting flu jabs among staff might have on the health of residents.

The homes were divided into two groups - those where flu jabs were offered to staff and those where they were not. The study was carried out in the winters of 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. In the first winter, vaccine coverage in the two groups was 48.2 per cent and 5.9 per cent and, in the second, 43.2 per cent and 3.5 per cent. During the 2003-2004 influenza seasons, levels of illness and death were lower in the first group of homes. The benefit was equivalent to preventing five deaths, two hospital admissions, seven doctor visits and nine cases of flu per 100 residents, say the researchers.

In the 2004-2005 flu seasons, there were no significant differences between the two groups of homes. This was a time when national flu rates were much lower than average - so clearly the benefit from giving care home staff flu jabs may depend upon the severity of any flu epidemic. The findings suggest that care home staff may help both themselves and their charges if they take up the offer of having a flu jab.

Source
BMJ Online First 30th November 2006