Low coverage of seasonal influenza vaccination in the elderly in many European countries

J Mereckiene; S Cotter; J T Weber; A Nicoll; D Lévy-Bruhl; A Ferro; G Tridente; G Zanoni; P Berra; S Salmaso; D O'Flanagan; on behalf of the VENICE gatekeepers group

doi:10.2807/ese.13.41.19001-en

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Low coverage of seasonal influenza vaccination in the elderly in many European countries
J Mereckiene^1,2 , S Cotter^1,2 , J T Weber^3,4 , A Nicoll³ , D Lévy-Bruhl^2,5 , A Ferro^2,6 , G Tridente^2,7 , G Zanoni^2,7 , P Berra^2,7 , S Salmaso^2,8 , D O'Flanagan^1,2 , on behalf of the VENICE gatekeepers group ⁹
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Affiliations: ¹ Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dublin, Ireland ² Vaccine European New Integrated Collaboration Effort (VENICE) Project ³ European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden ⁴ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, United States ⁵ Institut de Veille Sanitare, Saint-Maurice, France ⁶ Department of Prevention, Public Health Unit nr 17, Veneto Region, Italy ⁷ The Green Channel Regional Reference Centre for Vaccination, Veneto, Italy ⁸ Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy ⁹ List of gatekeepers is available on VENICE website (http://venice.cineca.org)

Correspondence:
J Mereckiene
jolita.mereckiene hse.ie
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Citation style for this article: Mereckiene J, Cotter S, Weber J T, Nicoll A, Lévy-Bruhl D, Ferro A, Tridente G, Zanoni G, Berra P, Salmaso S, O'Flanagan D, on behalf of the VENICE gatekeepers group Collective. Low coverage of seasonal influenza vaccination in the elderly in many European countries. Euro Surveill. 2008;13(41):pii=19001. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.13.41.19001-en Received: 07 Oct 2008

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Abstract

In May 2003, the 56th World Health Assembly (WHA) recommended influenza vaccination for all people at high risk defined as the elderly and persons with underlying diseases [1]. The WHA countries, including all European Union (EU) Member States, also committed to the goal of attaining vaccination coverage of the elderly population of at least 50% by 2006 and 75% by 2010 and to having mechanisms for monitoring the uptake [1]. To date there has been no published survey on how successful European countries have been in implementing this WHA resolution.