Should influenza immunisation be mandatory for healthcare workers? Yes

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Our online table of contents is updated at least twice each day. Read all articles published in the last 7 days.
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
OPEN ACCESS: All research articles are freely available online, with no word limit. Find out more about the BMJ's open access policy. Submit your paper.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

Charles M Helms, professor ,
Philip M Polgreen, assistant professor

¹University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States

Correspondence to: C Helms Charles-helms{at}uiowa.edu

Charles Helms and Philip Polgreen believe that mandatory immunisation is necessary to achieve good uptake, but David Isaacs and Julie Leask (doi:10.1136/bmj.a2140) argue that it infringes autonomy and could backfire

Influenza is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Health care associated influenza occurs in acute and long term healthcare facilities, affecting both patients and staff and disrupting delivery of care.1 2 There is evidence that vaccinating long term care healthcare workers reduces mortality among long term care patients and that vaccinating hospital workers decreases the rate of nosocomial influenza in hospitalised patients.3 4 5 6 Moreover, an economic evaluation of immunisation of healthcare workers in the UK found that it is cost saving.7 In addition, further studies show that healthcare worker vaccination reduces absenteeism.8 9 10

Based on available evidence, public health authorities have strongly recommended vaccination of healthcare workers to protect patients and healthcare workers in healthcare settings.11 Despite these recommendations, overall rates of …