HealthDay News — According to reports by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 2 out of 5 Americans had gotten this season’s flu vaccination as of early November.
About 37% of children between 6 months and 17 years old have gotten the flu vaccine this year. And approximately 41% of adults aged 18 and older have received the vaccination.
The overall rate is similar to the vaccination rate at the same time last year, the CDC noted.
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The CDC is also concerned about a 3% decrease in flu vaccination among adults aged 50 and older between 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. The CDC did find that the 47% flu vaccination rate among pregnant women as of early November was 6% higher than early estimates last season.
Still, more than half of pregnant women were still unvaccinated. The 69% overall vaccination rate among health care providers is about the same as it was at the same time last season.
“We are glad to see that people are making the decision to protect themselves and their families from flu, but coverage is still low and we urge people to get vaccinated if they haven’t yet,” Nancy Messonnier, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in an agency news release.
Reference
Flu Vaccine Coverage Remains Low This Year [press release]. Atlanta, GA: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; December 9, 2016.
