skip to the content

header

Flu in the news

Influenza World brings you the latest news and updates in the flu field from around the world.

 
Flu shots lower risk of flu-like illnesses
23 February 2009

By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Illnesses with symptoms similar to the flu are common in older workers and now new research shows that flu shots appear to halve the risk of such illnesses, researchers report in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"Influenza-like illness represents a huge burden to employees and to their employers," lead investigator Dr. Kristin L. Nichol told Reuters Health. "Because many influenza-like illnesses that occur during the influenza season are, indeed, caused by influenza, influenza vaccination results in substantial benefits to the employee -- fewer illnesses, fewer days of misery -- and to the employer -- fewer days of work loss and fewer days of working while ill."

Nichol, from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues surveyed 497 employees, aged 50 to 64 years, during the 2006-2007 flu season about vaccination status, occurrences of illness, associated symptoms, impact on work, and healthcare use.

The results showed that 81 percent received a flu vaccination and that 17.1 percent suffered an influenza-like illness. In the unvaccinated, the illness was responsible for 45 percent of days of illness during the flu season, 39 percent of all illness-related work days lost and 49 percent of days of working while ill.

"With vaccination, we demonstrated a substantial reduction in the risk of influenza-like illness of approximately 45 percent and reductions of (at least) 60 percent in the numbers of days of illness, days of work lost, days of working while ill, and days in bed because of influenza-like illness," Nichol and her co-authors write.

"For those workers who don't receive paid sick leave, avoiding absenteeism is also an important economic issue for them as well as for the employer," Nichol pointed out.

The "bottom line," she concluded, is that "vaccination can be a huge win-win for employees and employers alike."

SOURCE: Clinical Infectious Diseases, February 1, 2009.

  • "I would describe flu as something that makes you feel very, very ill. You get a headache, aching bones, and are generally fed up"
  • "When I get flu symptoms I feel like a train has run over me"
  • "I felt very sick and, during the first week, I had high temperature. Flu was very different to a cold. I went back to work after two and a half weeks. Then I suffered a setback for another week"
  • "I run a guesthouse; flu would be a real pest for me. I couldn’t cook, I shouldn’t cook, and I wouldn’t cook, so I would need to get a lot of extra help in. It would cost me a lot more money. So flu’s a real problem, a right downturn"
  • "I work on my own and when I can’t work, I have to try not to infect my little children, so they avoid getting the flu as well"
  • "I feel a little numb, like I’m in another dimension. Because in general I have sore throat, headache, I feel all clogged-up. Usually a sensation like I’m floating in the air"
  • "Shivers, sweats, makes you ache. Last time I had flu I was off for two weeks"
  • "I think that I would probably be concerned that I would pass flu onto my children, who might not be able to deal with it as well as I would"
  • "Flu makes you feel like you’ve been hit over the head with a baseball bat. You don’t feel like you can get yourself out of bed as all your energy is drawn from you"
  • "I was incapable of working. It just wasn’t possible at all… and my flu dragged on for more than a week"
  • "I have no strength. It annoys me because I can do nothing, it seems like I’m wasting my time"
  • "Flu’s like being hit by a truck because you feel completely gone. There is no energy left in your body. You are suffering from high temperature. You’re sweating a lot and you feel really unwell"
  • "First of all infinite tiredness, then I feel like sleeping and don’t want to eat"
  • "I felt really miserable because my muscles and my bones were aching. Well, I can hardly describe it, I just felt really awful, absolutely miserable"
  • "It’s like there’s something huge treading on your head, like a deafening noise that destroys the eardrums"
  • "The fever was constantly rising – I immediately measured my temperature as soon as I got home. It was 41°C and it kept rising and I was wondering what’s going on. I was really scared! Everything was hurting and it all happened so fast. Flu came out of the blue"
  • "I always feel like my limbs have iron weights tied to them and I’m going to fall over any minute, a really stuffy runny nose and feel antisocial"
  • "I was totally dependent on others! I was incapable of doing anything at all"
  • "The real flu knocks you for six – you just don’t want to move or do anything. It’s not very nice"
  • "Not being able to go to work. Not being able to do the things I have to do at home and the commitments that I have day by day"