FP Report -- June 1999
AAFP recommends routine influenza vaccine for patients 50 and older
You may want to order extra influenza vaccine for the 1999 fall flu season. A new Academy policy encourages family physicians to offer the vaccine to patients at age 50 as a routine annual immunization, rather than at age 65 as was previously recommended.
"We're not talking about a small public health problem; we're talking about a major problem," said Richard Zimmerman, M.D., M.P.H., of the department of family medicine and clinical epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh (Pa.). The AAFP's liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Prac-tices, he also serves on the AAFP Commission on Clinical Policies and Research, which submitted the policy to the AAFP Board of Directors for approval.
Zimmerman explained that influenza poses the greatest risk to people with chronic medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus or chronic obstructive lung disease. He also noted that the fatality rate from influenza is higher in middle-aged individuals with chronic medical conditions than it is for healthy elderly people. In fact, the mortality rate curve for influenza deaths begins to rise appreciably by age 50.
"Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 die in this country every year from influenza. If you had 30,000 people who died in plane crashes within a few months, you'd probably see substantial action," he said.
Recent studies have shown that use of the influenza vaccine in healthy adults is safe and cost-effective, reduces absenteeism and significantly lowers the risk of getting the flu, Zimmerman said.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1999 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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