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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

CIDRAP : Late-season CDC survey shows flu vaccination gain

From Lisa Schnirring at CIDRAP, excerpt :

" US flu vaccine uptake rose nine percentage points from the first snapshot in November, to 42.3%, slightly above last season's 42.1% level, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday.

Public health officials have been eager to see what vaccine uptake levels would be in the first flu season under a new universal flu immunization recommendation, which includes most people ages 6 months and older.

The findings are from the CDC's National Flu Survey, a telephone poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The interviews took place between Mar 3 and Mar 30 in 20 local areas and included responses from about 31,000 people.

In November, before the flu season picked up momentum, the same survey showed solid vaccine uptake, with 33% of Americans already vaccinated, 15% saying they definitely planned to get vaccinated, and 25% saying they would probably be immunized.

In the latest survey report, the CDC said flu activity remained low in most parts of the country until the middle of December, when it increased through early February. Last season there was an earlier-than-usual seasonal flu vaccine push to make way for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine, which arrived later than expected. Demand for the seasonal vaccine was high, due to frequent public health messages about both the seasonal and pandemic vaccines."

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