US NFID welcomes new infection control policy including flu vacc

The USA-based National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has welcomed the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations for introducing a new infection conrol policy that includes offering influenza vaccination to all staff, including volunteers, as well as professional practitioners who come into close contact with patients. The NFID is campaigning for increased vaccination rates among health care workers generally.

William Shaffner, the NFID's vice president, who is also a professor at the department of preventative medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, described the JCAHO's announcement as "an important first step toward improving influenza vaccination rates within the health care community, which will enhance the health and safety of patients in their care and health care workers themselves," in a statement released from the NFID headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. Prof Shaffner added: "we hope in future this standard will be expanded to encompass various strategies to increase health care worker vaccine uptake, such as signed declination."

The JCAHO's infection control policy will be enforced from January 1 next year. An NFID report, titled Improving Influenza Vaccination Rates in Health Care Workers: Strategies to Increase Protection for Workers and Patients, is available via the group's web site: www.nfid.org.