Not All St. Louis EMTs Get Vaccinated Against Flu

Nov. 15--ST. LOUIS -- A study looking at flu vaccination rates among health care workers in St. Louis and St. Louis County found that more than 25 percent of emergency medical technicians do not get vaccinated, placing the vulnerable populations they care for at risk.

Federal health authorities recommend that all health care workers get the annual vaccination and are working toward a 90 percent vaccination rate by the year 2020.

"If you look at vaccinating the general public as opposed to health care workers, you have a bigger impact on preventing the spread of influenza if health care workers are vaccinated," said Terri Rebmann, infectious disease specialist at St. Louis University's Institute for Biosecurity and co-investigator of the study. "It will prevent illness among the general population."

Emergency medical technicians work on ambulances and are the first to respond to emergencies, which often involve patients at high risk of developing flu-related complications: young children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with medical conditions like heart and lung disease.

The study, published this month in the American Journal of Infection Control, follows earlier findings that also showed low rates among local health care workers who work in non-hospital settings such as clinics, doctors offices and nursing homes. While 82 percent of hospital-based workers got the flu vaccination, only 70 percent of non-hospital workers did.

Many hospitals have mandatory vaccination policies, which is key to increasing vaccination rates among workers, Rebmann said. Only 3 percent of EMTs reported that their employer mandates vaccinations; and only 13 percent of non-hospital workers said so.

Besides mandatory vaccinations, a workplace education campaign can also be effective, researchers found. Sixty percent of EMTs who did not get vaccinated said they do not trust public health authorities about the safety of the flu vaccine. Also, more than half in this group said they do not believe they can play a role in transmitting influenza to their patients.

"It's a concern that so many EMTs who are educated in health care do not believe that the public health message regarding influenza vaccine safety and efficacy is reliable," said co-investigator Kate Wright, director of Heartland Centers at SLU.

St. Louis University partnered with St. Louis County Department of Health on the study, which was funded by a federal grant aimed to boost vaccination rates. Researchers used their findings to help create a website, NoFluForYou.com. The website includes information such as where flu vaccines are available; samples of educational campaigns; laws regarding mandatory vaccination policies; and research about the cost savings of vaccinating the health care workforce.

"Our goal is to reduce misinformation and eliminate barriers that stand in the way of protecting health care workers from getting flu vaccines, which ultimately will stop the spread of disease," Wright said.

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