Less than one third of healthcare workers have themselves vaccinated against classic influenza. This reluctance is astounding, firstly because vaccination against influenza viruses is considered safe and effective and secondly because it has been proved to prevent nosocomial transmission of disease to patients—provided at least 50% of employees have been vaccinated.

We all know that influenza vaccination helps prevent disease, but a new study from Canada suggests it may also prevent another public health problem: inappropriate antibiotic use. The findings come from a new study in the September 1, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Disease, which is now available online.

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the current swine flu.

Flu season has arrived; according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), influenza cases are on the rise and expected to peak in the coming weeks.

Influenza vaccination rates for adolescents who suffer from asthma and other illnesses are still far too low, according to a recent study.

Vaccinating new mothers and other family members against influenza before their newborns leave the hospital creates a "cocooning effect" that may shelter unprotected children from the flu, a virus that can be life-threatening to infants, according to researchers at Duke Children's Hospital.

The widely-held perception that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk in the elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny, according to researchers in Alberta.

A new study in the journal Psychophysiology reveals that men, but not women, vaccinated in the morning produced a better peak antibody response to both hepatitis A and the influenza strain.

A new study published in the February 2008 issue of Pediatrics finds that many children hospitalized for influenza have had a recent, previous hospitalization that would have provided an easy, convenient opportunity to receive a hospital-based influenza vaccination.

Significant public attention has recently been focused on the development of new anti-influenza (flu) vaccines that provide protection against a broad spectrum of viral strains. One proposed strategy is to utilize conserved viral protein, M2. Clinical trials of M2-containing influenza vaccines were recently initiated by US and European companies.

Researchers have found that vaccination against influenza strains seems to be more effective in a semi-urban population than in a rural population of schoolchildren in Gabon, Africa, according to an article in the Dec. 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The study suggests that infection with parasites and/or poor nutrition may have an impact on the effectiveness of influenza vaccine.

Influenza vaccination of health-care workers results in improved patient safety, improved employee safety and decreased health-care expenditures