Category Archives: Viva!

State laws heighten influenza vaccination rates among health care workers

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine shows that state laws requiring health care works to receive their influenza vaccines can raise vaccination rates.

Between 2000 and 2005, New Hampshire and Maine were the only two states with flu vaccine requirement laws specifically for people working in the health care industry. In those five years, health care workers had a 22.5 percent average for their influenza vaccination rates.

Between 2006 and 2011, 19 other states added state laws for influenza vaccination requirements. When this happened, health care workers had a 50.9

percent average for influenza vaccination.

“Flu vaccination for all health care workers has long been recommended as one of the most effective ways to avoid infecting vulnerable patients with influenza, which kills thousands of people every year,” Dr. Chyongchiou Jeng Lin, lead author and associate professor in Pitt’s Department of Family Medicine, said. “State laws mandating that health care workers get flu vaccinations are an effective method to potentially save lives.”

The study, available in the Journal of the National Medical Association, analyzed influenza vaccination rates between 2000 and 2011. The researchers made scores for each of the states determined according to the law’s rigor.

“We’re finding that the higher the score — meaning the state has a law and includes components like a mandate or education — the greater the probability that the vaccination rate among health care workers will be higher,” Lin said.

“We had five or six miscarriages before we had our daughter….

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“We had five or six miscarriages before we had our daughter. She was a twin, but the other one miscarried. So we call her our miracle baby. I was forty when she was born. We were close in every way. We’d always go camping and hiking together. She’s always loved animals and creatures. When she was little, she’d always pick up snakes and frogs and insects. She begged us for a dog, and when we finally got her one, she called it her ‘sister.’ Now she’s in vet school in Ohio. She sends me pictures all the time. She delivered twin goats last week. I’m getting to the point where I’d like to retire, but I’m going to keep working until she’s in a place where she feels secure. Then I can finally relax. We paid for her undergrad already. She took out loans for vet school, and we’ve agreed she’s going to pay them back herself. But you know, just in case, I’m going to keep working until she feels secure. Then I can relax.”

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Description: An exhausted nurse emerges from a gruelling shift at the 44th Evacuation Hospital in Normandy, France, 1944, photo by Lee Miller via reddit [[MORE]] There’s a lovely exhibition of Lee Miller’s photography at the Imperial War Museum in London, if anyone’s interested!
By Ned Hamson
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