BMJ 1994;309:126 (9 July)

Letters

Uptake of influenza vaccine

Epidemic of 1989-90 improved uptake

EDITOR,--Martin Wiselka highlights the low uptake of influenza vaccine among people known to be at increased risk of influenza and its complications.1 In particular, he draws attention to the extremely low uptake in high risk groups between 1983 and 1989, which generally ranged from 5% to 20%. The influenza epidemic that followed in the winter of 1989-90 was the largest since 1976, generating considerable medical and media attention. Such intense activity might well have been expected to change immunisation behaviour sufficiently to render any previous estimates of uptake obsolete. We present further data in this issue, which were not available in time for inclusion in Wiselka's paper.

In spring 1992 a large questionnaire survey of over 600 patients in Leicestershire with either chronic cardiovascular or respiratory disease or diabetes was performed, with a response rate of 82.6%. This showed that during winter 1991-2 the overall . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Influenza: diagnosis, management, and prophylaxis
Martin Wiselka
BMJ 1994 308: 1341-1345. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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