Pediatric Patients and Influenza
One of health care professionals' greatest responsibilities is making sure children receive their recommended vaccinations, including an annual influenza vaccination. Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, each year influenza causes approximately 20,000 hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths in American children younger than 5 years of age. In addition, only 20.6 percent of children 6 to 23 months of age were fully immunized for influenza during the 2005-2006 season.
Parents and other family members are often unaware of the seriousness of influenza and the value of vaccination for children. Experts agree that educating patients about the severity of influenza and health care professional vaccination recommendations are critical to increasing immunization rates among at-risk children and their contacts.
Pediatric influenza recommendations have expanded considerably in recent years and now call for vaccination of:
- All children 6 months and older who have underlying conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease and immunosuppression
- All healthy children 6 to 59 months years
Vaccinating children against influenza will also likely protect other high-risk persons because children are an important vector of influenza transmission. It is becoming increasingly clear that children and society as a whole will benefit from expanded pediatric influenza vaccination efforts.