Yes, summer is in full swing. But the next flu season is just a few months away. We’ve written before about the effectiveness of the flu vaccine. Now a new analysis from the U.S. Center for Disease Control has calculated the approximate number of hospitalizations which have been avoided thanks to the flu vaccine from 2005 to 2011.
The analysis uses national surveillance data to estimate the number of cases and hospitalizations in the flu season from 2005-6 to 2010-11. Researchers took into account variations in how effective the flu vaccine is every year and how prevalent the flu is each season. Then, they calculated the number of cases and hospitalizations avoided by vaccination.
Personally, I found the number surprising. In the six seasons, they found that about 13.6 million illnesses, 5.8 million medical visits and using the vaccine prevented 112,900 flu-related hospitalizations. The study authors estimate that about 18 percent of flu cases were avoided thanks to the vaccine.
As someone who has experienced being hospitalized for the flu during a year I did not get a flu vaccine, I can safely say that any chance of minimizing that miserable experience would be welcome. The bottom line: Come fall, the flu vaccine is a worthwhile preventative measure.
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