The United Nations health agency today called for the urgent vaccination of people at high risk of contracting influenza, in part to prevent the disruption of health services and costly precautionary measures resulting from suspect cases of the potentially deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
While the influenza vaccine does not provide protection from SARS, high vaccination coverage may reduce the number of pneumonia cases caused by influenza that might raise suspicions of SARS, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Those in influenza high-risk groups include the elderly, people with weakened immune systems and those with underlying chronic diseases. WHO is also urging increased vaccination coverage in health care workers who have frequent contact with these vulnerable populations -- and who registered a large number of the SARS cases.
As well as curbing the disruption and costs caused by investigating suspect SARS cases, decreasing the number of pneumonia cases through influenza vaccination can also help in the early identification of a true SARS outbreak, should the disease recur, WHO added. Early detection is essential to keep the disease contained.
While the human chain of SARS transmission has been interrupted, many experts are concerned that it might be a seasonal disease and return in the next few months, about a year after it first appeared in China. A total of 8,422 SARS with 916 deaths were reported as of August, most of them in China.
Influenza typically infects 10 to 20 percent of the total population during seasonal epidemics, resulting in between 3 and 5 million cases of severe illness and at least 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually worldwide. The influenza vaccine is safe and effective, and while some vaccinated people may still contract mild influenza, it does protect from the most dangerous consequence of the disease, pneumonia.
As important as it is, the vaccine remains chronically under-used. An estimated 1 billion persons worldwide are at high risk of severe illness, but only 250 million are vaccinated each year, mainly in industrialized countries. Vaccination coverage of health workers is also low in most countries.