This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Free flu jab patients should be vaccinated
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is stressing that having a flu vaccination each year is the single best way of protecting against catching or spreading flu.
New draft guidance recommends eligible people are made aware and offered the vaccine every winter to help reduce flu-related deaths and hospital admissions. This could be during a GP appointment, when picking up prescriptions or during a hospital stay or home visit.
Public Health England figures show that 953 people were admitted to intensive care units with confirmed cases of the flu between October 2016 and March 2017, with 107 of those dying. Estimates suggest that there may be around 8,000 deaths in an average year, with more when new flu strains cause pandemics.
Millions of at risk people, including older people, very young children, pregnant women and those who have an underlying long-term condition, are eligible for free vaccines on the NHS.
Professor Gillian Leng, director of health and social care at NICE, said: “The single best way to protect against the flu, and to stop it spreading, is to get the vaccination. People who are most at risk of getting the flu, and being admitted to hospital as a result, need to be made aware that they can get vaccinated at no cost.
“Health and social care professionals can help by using every opportunity to offer the most vulnerable people the flu vaccination each and every year. They also need to make sure they have the flu jab themselves. Our draft recommendations offer advice on how to increase the number of people being vaccinated against flu each year. Ultimately, our aim is to stop people getting sick in the first place so that we can reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and deaths.”
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