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 Flu
shots urged during national Adult Immunization Awareness Week
September 26, 2005--National Adult Immunization Awareness Week runs Sept. 25 to
Oct. 1, 2005, and health care professionals are
urging seniors to get flu shots.
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that these
high-risk groups have first
priority to receive the inactivated vaccine from now
until Oct. 24, 2005:
All adults
aged 65 and older.
Residents of
long-term-care facilities.
Adults and
children with underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes and
asthma.
Children aged
six through 23 months.
Pregnant
women.
Health care
workers who provide direct patient care.
Household
contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children aged less than six
months.
Beginning
Oct. 24, 2005, all people will be eligible for vaccination with the
inactivated virus, which healthy and high-risk people aged six
months and older can receive.
Those who are
aged five to 49 years and are not pregnant may receive the nasally
administered live virus at any time. This recommendation covers most
health-care personnel, other people in close contact with groups at
high risk for influenza-related complications, and others desiring
flu protection.
Antiviral medications
also may be used for early treatment of the flu and as a supplement
to the vaccine.
Those
65 years of age and older,
and those of any age with certain underlying medical conditions,
also should receive a shot against
pneumococcal disease,
which includes pneumonia and meningitis as well as ear, sinus, and
blood stream infections.
Medicare Part
B and Medicaid cover the flu and pneumococcal vaccines. Each year,
the flu causes approximately 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000
hospitalizations, according to the CDC.
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