By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Illnesses with symptoms similar to the flu are common in older workers and now new research shows that flu shots appear to halve the risk of such illnesses, researchers report in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"Influenza-like illness represents a huge burden to employees and to their employers," lead investigator Dr. Kristin L. Nichol told Reuters Health. "Because many influenza-like illnesses that occur during the influenza season are, indeed, caused by influenza, influenza vaccination results in substantial benefits to the employee -- fewer illnesses, fewer days of misery -- and to the employer -- fewer days of work loss and fewer days of working while ill."

Nichol, from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues surveyed 497 employees, aged 50 to 64 years, during the 2006-2007 flu season about vaccination status, occurrences of illness, associated symptoms, impact on work, and healthcare use.

The results showed that 81 percent received a flu vaccination and that 17.1 percent suffered an influenza-like illness. In the unvaccinated, the illness was responsible for 45 percent of days of illness during the flu season, 39 percent of all illness-related work days lost and 49 percent of days of working while ill.

"With vaccination, we demonstrated a substantial reduction in the risk of influenza-like illness of approximately 45 percent and reductions of (at least) 60 percent in the numbers of days of illness, days of work lost, days of working while ill, and days in bed because of influenza-like illness," Nichol and her co-authors write.

"For those workers who don't receive paid sick leave, avoiding absenteeism is also an important economic issue for them as well as for the employer," Nichol pointed out.

The "bottom line," she concluded, is that "vaccination can be a huge win-win for employees and employers alike."

SOURCE: Clinical Infectious Diseases, February 1, 2009.

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