Friday, December 06, 2002

By LINDY WASHBURN
Staff Writer

Each year, fewer and fewer older New Jerseyans bare their arms for the flu shots that could stave off days of fever, muscle aches, sore throat, and coughs.

The annual cycle of sickness begins to rise in December, as surely as fender benders follow a snowfall. But fewer than 40 percent of the state's Medicare recipients - whose shots are fully covered as a Medicare benefit - are likely to receive them, if the trend continues.

That means more than 700,000 people who could receive the shots at no cost aren't getting them, according to the Peer Review Organization of New Jersey, which monitors such trends.

In fact, from 1998 to 2000, the number of older people receiving flu shots has dropped by 8 percent.

With vaccine clinics nationwide reporting low turnout, this year appears no different, according to the National Coalition for Adult Vaccination.

"There are millions of doses of vaccine available,'' said Dr. William Schaffner, director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. "It is not too late. Now is a good time to get vaccinated.''

Early reports from supermarket and drugstore chains that offered vaccines have shown "a dramatic fall-off this year,'' with turnout down by 10 percent to 30 percent, said Dr. Kristin Nichol, chairwoman of the National Coalition for Adult Immunization.

Without the vaccine, 10 percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population will develop the flu. The costs - in hospitalizations, visits to doctors, prescription drugs, and missed workdays, as well as discomfort and disruption of family life - are enormous. Nichol cited studies showing that society saves at least $13 for each individual who receives a shot.

The vaccine is recommended for everyone, except those allergic to eggs, thimerosal, or products containing mercury.

Public health experts have expanded the target groups for immunization to include healthy working adults, as well as children over two months of age. The highest-risk groups are those over 50, those with chronic illnesses, nursing home residents, and pregnant women who will be in their second or third trimester from January through April, Schaffner said.

Although no official cases of flu have been isolated in New Jersey laboratories so far this year, absenteeism at public schools and rates of flu-like illness in nursing homes and emergency rooms have been creeping higher, the state's surveillance reports show.

Information on receiving vaccines can be obtained by calling your physician, the Peer Review Organization of New Jersey's automated toll-free number, (866) 269-4325; or New Jersey EASE, (877) 222-3737.

Web sites that list locations include the state Department of Health's, at www.state.nj.us/  health/flu, and Bergen County's Department of Health Services at www.bergenhealth.org .

Although most municipal health departments already have held their flu clinics, Bergenfield residents may still make an appointment with the health department, (201)387-4055, to receive their immunizations.

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