Influenza vaccination: revision of the indication

Advisory report issued by the Health Council of the Netherlands related to the revision of the indication regarding influenza vaccination (8 March 2007). Influenza is caused by the influenza virus. Because the virus is constantly changing, people do not build up life-long resistance, as frequently happens with other infectious diseases. This explains why there are annual epidemics. Healthy individuals are usually well able to withstand an infection, but for people in the risk groups, influenza can lead to serious illness and even death (for example as a result of pneumonia, diabetes dysregulation or aggravation of lung and heart disease). There has consequently been a specific policy for a longer period of time whereby people who are at risk for developing complications in connection with influenza are offered influenza vaccination. In 1997, an infrastructure was established for this very purpose: the National Influenza Prevention Programme (NPG). Owing to the changes that influenza viruses undergo, vaccination needs to be repeated annually and the vaccine has to be continually modified. Source: http://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/200709E_0.pdf