Monday, January 11, 2010
ACP President: Not Enough Americans Have Been Vaccinated Against H1N1 Flu
Editor's note: Val Jones, MD, guest authored this post, which originally appeared on her blog, Better Health.
Over 10,000 Americans (mostly young) have already died of H1N1 flu, and yet we've only vaccinated 10-20% of those who need protection. January 10-16 is National Influenza Awareness Week, and the American College of Physicians is doing its part to raise awareness of the ongoing need to protect Americans from the next wave of influenza.
I interviewed ACP President Joseph Stubbs, FACP, about the current influenza season and Americans' vulnerabilities to the virus. Please enjoy the audio of our conversation or click below on the word "More" to read the transcript here.
Dr. Val: I think a lot of Americans feel that the major push for flu vaccine is over. How many Americans do you estimate are still unvaccinated against H1N1 flu?
Dr. Stubbs: Only 10-20% of at-risk individuals have gotten the H1N1 vaccine so far. We really need people to get vaccinated as soon as possible in order to avoid a deadly increase in illness during the next wave of influenza.
Dr. Val: What have we learned about the virulence of this H1N1 strain?
Dr. Stubbs: So far the H1N1 virus has infected about 45 million Americans, resulting in 200,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths. Most of these deaths have occurred among young people, which is particularly tragic.
Dr. Val: How does the death rate of the H1N1 virus compare to the regular seasonal flu?
Dr. Stubbs: So far the H1N1 virus is killing about the same number of people that the seasonal flu kills, but the H1N1 has a predilection for the young, and pregnant women.
Dr. Val: Is the death rate from flu additive this year--meaning, are the H1N1 and seasonal flu viruses together killing twice as many people?
Dr. Stubbs: Absolutely. The next few months we could see a bump in the seasonal flu and a resurgence in the H1N1 virus. But both are preventable with vaccines.
Dr. Val: How have we done with seasonal flu vaccine rates this year?
Dr. Stubbs: We're on track to get about 30% of the population vaccinated against the seasonal flu. The one silver lining in the 2009 flu season is that the H1N1 virus brought a lot of focused media attention to the importance of vaccination and the dangers of influenza.
Dr. Val: Are there still vaccine shortages in certain pockets across the country?
Dr. Stubbs: There are. We have enough supply now but the distribution process has slowed things down. In my region in Georgia, the amount of supply has increased dramatically in the last few weeks and I hope that's indicative of what's happening across the country.
Dr. Val: Who should get vaccinated now?
Dr. Stubbs: For the seasonal flu, young women, pregnant women, those with chronic diseases, and people over age 65 are the main targets. For H1N1, pregnant women, children and young adults under the age of 25, those with chronic diseases between the ages of 25 and 64. I think that if you have a chronic medical condition, no matter what your age, you ought to be vaccinated with both the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines. Healthcare professionals and their staff should also get both vaccines so they don't spread the flu to patients.
Dr. Val: What's your goal for vaccination of at-risk populations? I know we're only at 10-20% vaccination rates now ...
Dr. Stubbs: I like to set the bar high. My goal is 80-100%. The government regrets the slow start we got with vaccine supply and they're doing all they can to get people vaccinated now. If we can get more people vaccinated we can avert problems in the coming months and even in the coming years.
Dr. Val: What's your take home message for Americans entering this new year?
Dr. Stubbs: You can stay healthy by getting vaccinated.
***
Vaccination Resources from the American College of Physicians
--Immunization
--Adult immunization 
This post originally appeared on Better Health a network of popular health bloggers brought together by Val Jones, MD. Better Health’s mission is to support and promote healthcare professional bloggers, provide insightful and trustworthy health commentary, and help to inform health policy makers about the provider point of view on healthcare reform, science, research, and patient care.
Labels: flu, H1N1, vaccination
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
8:00 AM
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Blog log
Members of the American College of Physicians contribute posts from their own sites to ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist. Contributors include:
Albert Fuchs, MD
Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP,
graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of
Medicine, where he also did his internal medicine training.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fuchs
spent three years as a full-time faculty member at UCLA School of
Medicine before opening his private practice in Beverly Hills in
2000.
David Katz, MD
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
authority on nutrition, weight management, and the prevention of
chronic disease, and an internationally recognized leader in
integrative medicine and patient-centered care.
DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
health topics for patients and health professionals.
Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
academic medical center on the East Coast. His time is split
between teaching medical students and residents, and caring for
patients.
Everything Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
medicine, health and healing in the 21st century.
FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship &
Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of
Chicago. Her education and research focus is on resident duty
hours, patient handoffs, medical professionalism, and quality of
hospital care. She is also an academic hospitalist.
Glass
Hospital
John H. Schumann, MD, FACP, provides transparency on the workings
of medical practice and the complexities of hospital care,
illuminates the emotional and cognitive aspects of caregiving and
decision-making from the perspective of an active primary care
physician, and offers behind-the-scenes portraits of hospital
sanctums and the people who inhabit them.
Gut Check
Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Program
Director for the GI & Hepatology Fellowship Program. He
specializes in diseases of the esophagus, with a strong interest in
the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have
difficult-to-manage esophageal problems such as refractory GERD,
heartburn, and chest pain.
I'm dok
ACP Member Mike Aref, MD, PhD, ACP Member, is an academic
hospitalist with an interest in basic and clinical science and
education, with interests in noninvasive monitoring and diagnostic
testing using novel bedside imaging modalities, diagnostic
reasoning, medical informatics, new medical education modalities,
pre-code/code management, palliative care, patient-physician
communication, quality improvement, and quantitative biomedical
imaging.
Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology. His blog is a joint publication with Gregg Masters, MPH.
KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
for influential health commentary.
MD
Whistleblower
Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
medical practice, including controversies in the doctor-patient
relationship, medical ethics and measuring medical quality. When
he's not writing, he's performing colonoscopies.
Medical
Lessons
Elaine Schattner, MD, ACP Member, shares her ideas on education,
ethics in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on
medicine are informed by her past experiences in caring for
patients, as a researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient
who's had breast cancer.
Prescriptions
David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
musings on medicine, medical care, the health care system and
medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections
of a Grady Doctor
Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
a doctor in a community hospital in Atlanta.
Technology in (Medical) Education
Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
education, social media and networking, practice management and
evidence-based medicine tools, personal information and knowledge
management.
White Coat Underground
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist also contribute to and draw upon content from Get Better Health, a network created by Val Jones, MD, to support and promote health care professional bloggers, provide insightful and trustworthy health commentary, and help to inform health policy makers about the clinician's point of view on health care reform, science, research and patient care.
Other blogs of note:
American
Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
commentary and more.
db's Medical
Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
medicine and the health care system.
Interact
MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS
Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
room physician.
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