ESWI Science Policy Flu Summit
20 November 2019 | Marseille, France
The question of flu vaccination for healthcare professionals is an urgent and highly relevant one. After all, the devastating impact of flu is widely recognized, and flu vaccines are estimated to prevent thousands of admissions and millions of illnesses with current usage. At risk groups are well defined. Health care professionals work with the patients at risk on a daily basis. Annual vaccination is widely recommended to reduce the risk of healthcare acquired influenza. Why then is it so difficult to achieve influenza vaccine uptake levels in healthcare workers that would reduce or eliminate the risk of transmitting the disease?
In the 2019 Science Policy Influenza Summit, ESWI attempted to answer that question in close collaboration with its partner organizations. ESWI brought together influenza stakeholders for a day of presentations and discussions. The event was available via live stream video and reached almost 350 viewers worldwide.
An easy-to-grasp summit report will be made available after the meeting. It will include a concrete set of actions to encourage the implementation of immunization programmes for healthcare professionals. This document will be distributed to the Influenza Community via ESWI’s database of 8,000 influenza advocates worldwide, as well as via ESWI’s partner organizations.
The discussion of vaccination programs for healthcare workers will be continued at the 7th ESWI Influenza Conference (13-16 September 2020) in Valencia, Spain.
