NSW: Bosses advised to get staff vaccinated against flu
SYDNEY, April 30 AAP - Australian companies were encouraged today to get their staffvaccinated against flu.
A new study has shown about one in five Australians get influenza every year, takingan average of three days off work.
It also takes an average of 17 days for flu sufferers to fully recover.
The Flu In Australia 2002 survey, of more than 1000 Australians who have suffered theflu in the past two years, also showed one in three had never considered getting a fluvaccination.
One reason could be the inconvenience of having to book a doctor's appointment to getvaccinated every year, medical virologist Dr Dominic Dwyer from Sydney's Westmead Hospitalsaid.
A solution could be for workplaces to arrange group vaccinations, he said.
"(Some) employers have elected to vaccinate all of their staff to avoid absenteeism,"
Dr Dwyer said at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
"That approach, where the vaccination is done in the workplace, is highly effective.
"You get everybody, everybody agrees to do it. It takes the pressure off finding timeto get a doctor's appointment."
He also supported the approach taken in Ontario, Canada, where mobile clinics wereset up to vaccinate people in the 2000-2001 winter.
In that year the proportion of people getting the flu halved from 41 per cent to 21 per cent.
But Dr Dwyer said Australia might not be able to afford to pay for such a system.
Complications from influenza killed about 2000 Australians ever year, thoracic physicianChristine Jenkins from Sydney's Concord Hospital said.
Dr Jenkins urged all Australians in the at-risk group to get the flu vaccination assoon as possible before the flu season this winter.
People at risk include those aged over 65, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders,and people with weakened immune systems caused by diabetes, asthma, heart disease andother conditions.
Symptoms of the flu were much more severe than cold symptoms, she said.
Sufferers usually had fever, aches and pains, and "can't lift their head off the bed", she said.
Flu vaccinations cost around $20, but they are free for certain groups, including the over 65s.
AAP rk/bd/arb/wjf/sb
KEYWORD: FLU
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