Flu

The organization said it is the first long-term care provider in North Carolina to provide mandatory employee vaccinations on this scale.

The 2018–2019 flu season isn’t over but already has set a record, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in its weekly flu report.

Researchers have taken a potential step closer to what the director of the National Institutes of Health predicts will be one of the 10 medical breakthroughs of the next 10 years with the launch of the agency’s first clinical trial of a flu vaccine that may be able to provide long-lasting protection for all age groups from multiple influenza subtypes.

The flu vaccine cannot prevent all cases of the respiratory illness, but it appears to reduce severe outcomes — intensive care unit admissions and death — among those who are vaccinated but still become infected with the virus, say the researchers behind a newly published study.

The FDA’s approval of a new flu treatment preceded the release of independent study results indicating that only 41% of U.S. older adults have been vaccinated this year. Antiviral drugs are not a substitute for yearly vaccination against influenza, the FDA said.

Federal health officials have a message for long-term care employers and employees: Don’t underestimate the importance of influenza vaccination.

As the senior housing industry prepares for another flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has issued its influenza vaccination guidelines for 2018-2019.

Flu vaccination among adults aged 65 or more years has remained fairly steady since 1997, according to data newly released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Pneumococcal vaccination among people in this age group, however, is increasing.