CDC Reports Highlight H1N1 Vaccine Successes, Identify Opportunities to Improve Future Vaccination Rates

April 1, 2010

Two reports on recent surveys of flu vaccination coverage were released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  One was a survey of health care workers, while the second report focuses on each state’s H1N1 vaccination coverage. 

The first was on an innovative survey of more than 1000 health care workers conducted through the internet. The survey revealed that an estimated 64.5% have received at least one (seasonal or H1N1) flu vaccine during the 2009-2010 season, which is much higher than what has been seen in other surveys in previous years. The report also shows that those who care for seriously ill patients were more likely to be vaccinated than those working with less seriously ill patients.

In addition, the health care worker survey showed that those who were employed by health care organizations and providers that required or recommended staff vaccination were 2-3 times more likely to get vaccinated than those in organizations without a flu vaccination policy.

The report provides state-level estimates of H1N1 vaccine coverage and highlights success in vaccinating children as well as individuals who were in groups that were initially recommended to get the H1N1 vaccine. The state-level perspective helps CDC identify successful vaccination efforts, and work with partners to implement similar programs across the country.

The complete reports are available online at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5912.pdf.