Legislation : Influenza Vaccination Resolution

Support of Annual Influenza Vaccination of Healthcare Workers

WHEREAS the North Dakota Public Health Association (NDPHA) which is an affiliate of the American Public Health Association (APHA), provides leadership in championing prevention, advocating for healthy people and communities , and promoting evidence-based policy and practice; and

WHEREAS the NDPHA has recognized immunization as a premier public health intervention, advocates for effective implementation of universal immunization and has also advocated for preparedness for pandemic influenza; and

WHEREAS Influenza is a contagious respiratory infection that, despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines, is a major cause of death and disease and is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death; and

WHEREAS annual influenza vaccination is the most effective method for preventing influenza infection and its complications; and

WHEREAS healthcare workers are, of course, at risk of influenza exposure in the community and patients can be at risk of infection when exposed to infected health care workers (both those who have no symptoms, and also those who work while feeling ill); and unvaccinated healthcare workers have been implicated as the source of influenza infections in deadly influenza outbreaks in acute and long-term care settings; and

WHEREAS preventing both community and workplace influenza transmission to health care workers is essential both for maintaining a safe work environment in healthcare settings and for ensuring staffing capacity; and

WHEREAS the strongest and most frequently asserted ethical principle is that the healthcare provider’s primary duty is to protect and avoid harming those served, which is articulated as “First, do no harm;” and the healthcare consumer has the right to assume that healthcare workers, and the organizations that employ them, will take all reasonable measures to avoid transmitting communicable pathogens for which safe and effective vaccines exist;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the North Dakota Public Health Association takes a position that it is imperative that healthcare workers and first responders are priority populations for influenza vaccination in the event of a pandemic; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NDPHA encourages all health care organizations to adopt policies that require annual seasonal influenza vaccination for employees with appropriate exemptions for those not eligible for vaccination.

Adopted by North Dakota Public Health Association, April 2010