According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), seasonal flu claimed approximately 55,000 deaths in 2014 alone. Seeing the increase in numbers of deaths CDC has asked all the health-care personnel to get influenza vaccines to stop the spread of the virus.

After the report revealed its data, hospitals have picked up pace and have started asking their staff to get vaccinated, or wear masks if they cannot or will not get vaccinated.

A CDC survey this year also showed that hospitals, physician offices, long-term care facilities and other clinics with mandatory vaccination achieved 96% coverage for their workers, as compared to the 44% coverage in institutions that do not provide coverage to their workers.

Another 2014 CDC study showed that if health-care workers are vaccinated then it reduces patients’ risk of influenza-like illness by almost 42%.

The CDC since long have stressed on the point that annual influenza vaccination is very much necessary for health-care personnel. And the US Department of Health and Human Services, as part of its Healthy People initiative, wants 90% of health-care workers to be vaccinated by 2020.

The recent survey conducted in 2013 that was published late last month in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology showed that only about 43% of the 386 responding nonfederal hospitals require health-care personnel to be vaccinated against the flu.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, Director of the National Center for Immunization said, “Flu season typically peaks between December and February but significant activity can occur as late as May. We are encouraging people who have not yet been vaccinated this season to get vaccinated now”.