Influenza: a preventable lethal disease.

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
INFLUENZA and pneumonia are major health problems in older people. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination have made a significant impact on preventing acute respiratory illness (ARI) and related complications that lead to hospitalization and death (1). However, barriers to annual vaccination in subpopulations of very high-risk older adults result in low vaccination rates in these populations. The article by Menec and colleagues (2) reports a comparison of hospitalization and death rates that were due to recognized complications of influenza in three subsamples of older people defined by their living environment and related risk of contracting influenza. Although residents of seniors' housing and nursing homes who were hospitalized were older and included more women than hospitalized seniors from the community at large, there was no difference in comorbidities or complications. Rates of hospitalization and death related to pneumonia and influenza, chronic lung disease, and acute respiratory diseases were higher during the influenza season compared with the fall season in three settings including nursing homes, seniors' apartments, and the community at large. These results suggest that differences in hospitalization rates among the three groups may be due to the environment and related functional status of the older adult rather than health status as it relates to risk for complicated influenza illness.