Het intensieve griepseizoen van 2018

The 2017/2018 influenza season was severe and lasted twice as long as usual. Hospitals struggled to meet the demand for care. In addition to a high number of patients with flu and its complications, other factors played a role. These included absenteeism of informal caretakers and professional home care staff due to having flu themselves, and added strain on hospital capacity due to flu-related sick leave of hospital staff. A minority of the latter group is vaccinated annually against influenza. The authors of this article argue that all healthcare providers should take the yearly influenza vaccination. This will prove beneficial to the employer and employees, since non-attendance among employees will be reduced during peak demand and thus ensure continuity of care capacity. It will also have a positive impact in terms of patient safety and professionalism through improved protection of vulnerable patients against nosocomial influenza infection.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.