Flu-Shot Rule Sought for Health Workers

A doctors’ group says that health care workers should be required to get flu shots. The American Academy of Pediatrics released its new policy statement September 8. It is the latest group to back mandatory shots for people involved in health care. Another group of doctors, the Infectious Disease Society of America, also has backed the idea. Others include the Society of Healthcare Epidemiologists. The movement grew out of concern that too few health care workers are getting shots, USA Today reported. A CDC survey found that just over one-third of health care workers got regular and swine flu shots last year. In an average year, half of health care workers get flu shots. Cases of flu have been linked to hospital workers who had not been vaccinated. In a few cases, patients died. The new doctors’ policy statement appeared in the journal Pediatrics.